Trailblazing First Feminine Workers Photographer at ‘The Washington Post’ Dies

Margaret Thomas, the primary feminine employees photographer employed by The Washington Post, has died on the age of 84.

Thomas, who spent 4 a long time on the newspaper, died at her dwelling in Hume, Virginia, within the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Her niece Teri Mathews confirmed her demise and says the trigger has not but been decided.

According to an obituary published by The Washington Post, Thomas was born in Moose Lake, Minnesota, in 1941. She studied pictures at Ohio University and earned a Master of Fine Arts diploma in 1965.

Less than seven months after graduating, Thomas joined The Washington Post. At the time, the newsroom was increasing past its largely White, male workforce following the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited office discrimination primarily based on race, intercourse, and faith. Although Thomas was employed when she was simply 24 years previous, she later discovered that some male photographers on the newspaper had urged pictures director Richard Darcey to not make use of her.

Thomas spent her first six months on probation, working primarily within the darkroom creating movie moderately than taking pictures. She was later mentored by fellow Minnesotan Tom Kelley, who had been a photographer at The Washington Post because the Nineteen Thirties, and shortly started receiving assignments.

According to the information outlet’s obituary, on one in every of her first assignments, Thomas discovered herself pushed to the again of a crowd of male photographers. Thomas responded through the use of a way she had discovered from acclaimed Life journal photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White and it will a way she continued to depend on all through her profession.

“I dropped to my knees and wiggled my way through a sea of legs, until I reached the front of the scrum and shot my photos from a lower perspective,” Thomas recalled, in accordance with The Washington Post. “I kept that technique in my bag of tricks for the duration of my career.”

During her 40 years on the newspaper, Thomas photographed riots, worldwide conflicts, international summits, the Watergate hearings, and presidential politics. She additionally obtained quite a few honors from the White House News Photographers Association, together with its Photographer of the Year award in 1987.

Years of holding a digital camera upright along with her elbows bent whereas ready for the fitting second to take pictures finally took its toll on her physique. Thomas developed ache and numbness in her proper elbow and hand and later underwent procedures to deal with elbow irritation and carpal tunnel syndrome.

After leaving The Washington Post, Thomas studied for a doctorate on the University of Texas at Austin. She accomplished a dissertation on the historical past of girls in information pictures and earned her Ph.D. in 2007, a yr after formally retiring. Her archive is now held on the college’s Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.

Even in retirement, Thomas continued taking pictures, masking hunts and different equestrian occasions close to her dwelling in Virginia.

Thomas additionally met her husband canoeist David Thomas on one in every of her first assignments for The Washington Post the place she was commissioned to take photos from a canoe within the Potomac River. David approached her to assist regular her boat and cease her from falling overboard. They married in 1967 and remained collectively till his demise in 2021.

Image creditHeader photograph through Moser Funeral Home.