The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

Funeral Cortege, End of an Era in a Small Valley Town, California

Funeral Cortege, End of an Era in a Small Valley Town, California

1938, printed c. 1965
(American, 1895–1965)
America, 20th century
gelatin silver print
Image: 28 x 25.5 cm (11 x 10 1/16 in.); Matted: 61 x 50.8 cm (24 x 20 in.)
Gift of Photography in the Fine Arts 1965.328
Location: not on view

Description

Dorothea Lange put a face to the political, economic, and social circumstances of displaced migrant farm workers during the Great Depression. In the late 1930s, while employed by the Farm Security Administration, her photographs were widely published and aided the government agency’s goal of “introducing America to Americans.” Lange’s image of an older woman in a funeral procession invokes not only the end of an individual life but the shaky vitality of the town as a whole. In An American Exodus, Lange collaborated with her husband, Paul Schuster Taylor, a progressive agricultural economist. Their book combined photographs with data and text to raise awareness of their subjects’ plight.
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 259 archive.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996. Reproduced: P. 219
  • Photographs in Ink. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 20, 2022-April 2, 2023).
    Source Material for Studio Projects. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 20-August 27, 1972).
    Photograph Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 13-September 19, 1971).
    Year in Review: 1965. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 27-November 14, 1965).
    CMA, October 27 - November 14, 1965: "Year in Review 1965," CMA Bulletin, 52 (November 1965), p. 157, no. 176.
    New York World's Fair, 1965: "Photography in the Fine Arts."
  • {{cite web|title=Funeral Cortege, End of an Era in a Small Valley Town, California|url=false|author=Dorothea Lange|year=1938, printed c. 1965|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1965.328