on first with a pained look after drawing a walk after last days of the season; Grace Kelly and President John F. Kennedy; and former Presidents Harry Truman and Eisenhower with President Kennedy at the funeral of Speaker Sam Rayburn in 1961. He covered President John F. Kennedy handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. One of his most iconic photographs is held within the Library of Congress collection, and was taken on August 28, 1963, from an elevated position, behind the Statue of Abraham Lincoln (Lincoln Memorial). It is titled “Emancipator looks down on demonstrators”. As a freelance photographer, he covered every U.S. president from Harry S. Truman to Richard Nixon, as well as the major events of the day, such as the McCarthy hearings, the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and the State funeral of John F. Kennedy in November 1963. Very few contemporary world leaders from this period of history escaped his lens. On April 11, 1963, he was the press photographer during the search for USS Thresher. The following month he took first place at the Annual White House Photographers Association Photo Contest; this time in the “spot-news category”, with a photo titled “Back from Space”. He captured on film the most pivotal moments of the Kennedy Presidency. One of Atherton's most iconic photographs is of President John F. Kennedy standing at Checkpoint Charlie shortly before President gave his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech on June 26, 1963, in West Berlin. Historically it is one of the best-known speeches of the Cold War and among the most famous anti-communist speeches. A signed print of his UPI photograph is now a collectors item. Under the President Richard Nixon administration, in 1970 he was recognized one final time by the White House Photographers Association receiving the First Prize in the “presidential class” category. That same year, Atherton chose a different career path, by becoming the picture editor at The Washington Post, moving on to be their staff photographer in 1973, allowing him to return to his passion, using his own camera. Atherton was also a member of a standing committee within the Senate Press Photographers Gallery and by 1972 was listed within the Congressional Directory as the Head of Photography. His award-winning photo coverage of the Watergate hearings is most notable. Atherton continued to cover Capitol Hill throughout the Iran–Contra affair hearings, with Getty