Harker, Margaret (1920-2013), Head of School of Photography

Harker first attended Regent Street Polytechnic as a student in 1939.

During the Second World War she worked for the National Buildings Record, photographing bomb damage. She then joined the staff of the Polytechnic for the academic year 1943/44 as a lecturer in the School of Photography.

She became Head of School of Photography in September 1959, and became Dean of the Faculty of Communications when this was formed in 1974 (merging the Schools of Photography and Communication Studies and the Centre for Extra Mural Studies).

Harker developed the first FT 3-year Diploma in Photography in 1960 and established the first BSc Hons course in Photography in the UK at the Polytechnic in 1966 (the first graduates completed in the summer of 1969).

Harker retired at the end of the academic year in 1980 and received an Honorary Doctorate from PCL in October 1987.

Harker was a renowned photographer in her own right as well as a published scholar on the history of photography. She was the first female President of the Royal Photographic Society (1958-1960) and was formerly a Trustee of the Photographer’s Gallery and of the National Media Museum.