Dorothea Lange shoots El Paso, 1937

"State border plant inspection maintained by the United States Department of Agriculture between Mexico and the United States. Shoppers returning from Mexico (Juarez) to the United States (El Paso) over the bridge which carries all the traffic are required to open their packages for inspection" by Dorothea Lange, May 1937
Credit:  Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF34-016898-C

"Plant quarantine inspectors examining packages brought over the bridge between Juarez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas. Families and housewives returning to their homes in El Paso after their Saturday marketing in Juarez, where they benefit by the present rate of exchange" by Dorothea Lange, May 1937
Credit: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF34-016686-C

There's a large collection of photos of our region in the Library of Congress, many by Dorothea Lange and other photographers at the Farm Security Administration.  (Click here to read about this wonderful collection.)  

The El Paso photographs range include many of Lange's photographs of the border crossings, of smelter processes, of buildings in the city, of former slaves.