Animations:

Visit
Open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Admission is always free

6th and Constitution Ave NW
Washington, DC 20565

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Exhibitions & Events
Featured exhibition:

Little Beasts: Art, Wonder, and the Natural World
Now on view
Art & Artists
Artle

A refreshed experience for our puzzle game
Today's puzzle

Open today 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ⸱ Always free

Visit
Open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Admission is always free

6th and Constitution Ave NW
Washington, DC 20565

Only have an hour to spend?

We've got you covered.
Exhibitions & Events
Featured exhibition:

Little Beasts: Art, Wonder, and the Natural World
Now on view
Art & Artists
Artle

A refreshed experience for our puzzle game
Today's puzzle

Past Exhibition

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People

During her long, prolific, and groundbreaking career, the American photographer Dorothea Lange made some of the most iconic portraits of the 20th century. Dorothea Lange: Seeing People reframes Lange’s work through the lens of portraiture, highlighting her unique ability to discover and reveal the character and resilience of those she photographed.

Featuring some 100 photographs, the exhibition addresses her innovative approaches to picturing people, emphasizing her work on social issues including economic disparity, migration, poverty, and racism.

Explore Selected Works

Dorothea Lange, Nettie Featherston, wife of a migratory laborer with three children, near Childress, Texas, June 1938, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.5

Dorothea Lange, Arkansas mother come to California for a new start, with husband and eleven children. Now a rural rehabilitation client. Tulare County, California, November 1938, printed 1965, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.43

Dorothea Lange, Yazoo Delta, Mississippi, 1938, printed 1965, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.45

Dorothea Lange, Line of men inside a division office of the State Employment Service office at San Francisco, California, waiting to register for unemployment benefits, January 1938, printed c. 1960s, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.61

Dorothea Lange, Dispossessed Arkansas farmers. These people are resettling themselves on the dump outside of Bakersfield, California, 1935, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.94

Dorothea Lange, Member of the congregation of Wheeley's church who is called "Queen." She is wearing the old fashioned type of sunbonnet. Her dress and apron were made at home. Near Gordonton, North Carolina, July 1939, printed no later than 1965, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.103

Dorothea Lange, Formerly enslaved woman, Alabama, 1938, printed c. 1955, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.84

Dorothea Lange, Post office and postmistress, Widtsoe, Utah, April 1936, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2017.162.2

In this black and white, vertical photograph, a man, woman, and baby, all with pale skin, rest on blankets, or perhaps rugs, spread over a roughly built wooden platform under a leafy tree. Closest to us, the man takes up most of the right half of the composition. He lies on his stomach with his left arm, on our right, stretched out in front. His hand is close to the photographer so is slightly out of focus, and he cups his forehead with his other hand. The wooden platform on which he lies runs close to the bottom edge of the image. His light hair stands straight up from his head, and he is cleanshaven. He wears a long-sleeved, button-down shirt and looks off to our left and a little above us from under raised eyebrows and a creased brow. To our left, a woman sits beyond the man with her body angled to our left. Her chin-length dark hair is tucked behind her ears, and her worn dress has tattered seams and gapes at the waist. She hunches slightly over the child she holds and looks up and to our left, her mouth open and her eyebrows knit. She seems to breastfeed the young, barefoot child who clutches her dress. The baby looks toward us from the corners of wide eyes. The toes and the ball of a person’s foot, mostly cropped from the image, are next to the man, along the right edge of the photograph. A piece of cloth is tied into the branches above and over the woman to create a makeshift tent against the bright glare of the sun. — Dorothea Lange, Drought refugees from Oklahoma camping by the roadside, Blythe, California, August 17, 1936, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2017.162.4

Dorothea Lange, Country store on dirt road. Sunday afternoon. Note the kerosene pump on the right and the gasoline pump on the left. Rough, unfinished timber posts have been used as supports for porch roof. Negro men are sitting on the porch. Brother of store owner stands in doorway, Gordonton, North Carolina, July 1939, printed later, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2018.189.14

Dorothea Lange, Japanese American-owned grocery store, Oakland, California, March 1942, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.134

Dorothea Lange, Native American Girl, Taos, New Mexico, 1931, gelatin silver print, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund, 2022.114.4

Dorothea Lange, Maynard and Dan Dixon, 1930, printed c. 1960s, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.60

Dorothea Lange, Patrick Flanagan on Tubber Green, County Galway, Ireland, 1954, printed no later than 1965, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.105

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