As recounted by Susie Tompkins Buell in the interview that prefaces this catalogue, Dorothea Lange’s A Sign of the Times—Mended Stockings was the first photograph she acquired. Ms. Buell says of this image: ‘That photograph never ceases to amaze me. It represents something I believe in deeply: a woman holding it together with dignity during the harshest times. It is so poignant to see how Lange recognized the power of that image; it will be a lesson for centuries to come.’