Fleming, Peggy, 1937-

Documentary historian, Peggy Fleming, nee Margaret Mary Dougherty, grew up in Monterey, Calif., but has lived, studied, and worked in Washington, D.C., since 1959. Arriving in Washington, D.C., right after college graduation in Aug. 1959, Fleming became the secretary in the civil rights division in John F. Kennedy's Senate office for the four years that included JFK's presidential campaign and his transition to the White House. Fleming and her husband witnessed Martin Luther King, Jr.'s I have a Dream speech at the Lincoln Memorial. Fleming attended George Washington University and received a Master's degree in Cultural Anthropology. Her thesis is called "A Social-Structural Study of the Relationship between Selected White Housewives and Black Household Workers in Washington, D.C., October 1968-April 1969." Interviews for the thesis project were conducted after Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination. Fleming was also a park ranger for seventeen years in the Resources Management for the National Park Service in Rock Creek Park. She was the District Vegetation Management Specialist, Botanist. She and Raclare Kanal made a voucher collection of plants in all the natural National Park Service parks in Washington, D.C. The voucher specimens are housed in the U.S. National Herbarium in the District of Columbia and Vicinity Collection, in the Natural History Building of the Smithsonian Institution. Fleming's field books, however, are housed at the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. As a photographer, Fleming has been represented by the Multiple Exposures Gallery (MEG), formerly known as Factory Photoworks Gallery, at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Old Town Alexandria, Va., since 1993, and her photographs have been collected by numerous repositories including The Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division; Little Big Horn College, Crow Agency, Montana; National Anthropological Archives, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution; and the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Fleming has published two books: In Her Place: inner views and outer spaces (2000) and Small Town in the Big City: The shopkeepers and business community of Chevy Chase, Washington, D.C. at the beginning of the 21st century (2005).