Early life

     Born on May 26, 1895 of German imigrants in Hoboken, New Jersey to Henry Martin Nutzhorn and Joan Lange Nutzhorn.  She was origionaly named Dorothea Margretta Nutzhorn at birth.  She dropped her middle name with her siblings and took her mothers maiden name after her father left when she was 12 years old. 

    Traumatic Insudences

          The first tramatic insudent was in 1902 when she got polio.  It weakend her right leg and and gave her a dropped foot, a dropped foot is when a person lacks the muscle to lift the front part of thier foot so they often drag the front part, and even though she did well for her dissability she always walked with a limp.  dorothea once said  "I was physically disabled, and no one who hasn't lived the life of a semi-cripple knows how much that means.  I think it perhaps was the most important thing that happened to me, and formed me, guided me, instructed me, helped me, and humiliated me. All those things at once."  Dorothea love her father very much and would read Shakespeare alot with him.  He left her family in 1907 and she did not see him at all through the rest of her life.  She eventually decided to replace her fathers last name with her mothers maiden name Lange.  When her father left her mom needed to find a job to support Dorothea and her brother, she got a job as a librarian in new York City.  in order to be closer to the library they had to move in with Joans ( Dorothea mom) mother.  joans mother was usually drunk and hit Dorothea, so coincidentally she did not like to stay home at nights especially since her mother worked most nights at the library.  Dorothea didn't like going to school either so during the day and nights she would walk around the city and museums with her friend Fronsie or alone.  Dorothea learned how to move through people with out being noticed, not to make eye contact with people, and walk over drunks which came in handy with her photography career as an adult.

          Family

               Works Cited Page

    " Lange Dorothea" New World Encyclopedia.