James Atherton (1927-2011) was an American photojournalist, who covered every U.S. president from Harry S. Truman to Richard M. Nixon, the civil rights movement, the U.S. space program and hearings on the Watergate and Iran-contra scandals on Capitol Hill. Atherton joined the Navy shortly after the Second World War and served in Asia as a military photographer. After his return, he studied at a photography school in Silver Spring before joining Acme Newspictures agency, which would later become United Press International (UPI), as a telephoto operator. In 1970, James Atherton joined The Washington Post as as a picture editor but, missing the action outside the newsroom, returned to photography.
