The Story of Louis Weickum

One interesting story I discovered from working at the SUNY Maritime Museum is that of Louis Weickum. I was working a lot on an exhibit called the Louis Weickum Collection while I was at the museum. My work included cataloging a lot of the items in the collection and making and putting up labels for the items. The reason this exhibit was being added and updated was because of its connection to a new model of the USS St. Marys that the museum was receiving. The USS St Marys was the first ship that the school received from the government to be used for training and Louis was one of the cadets to be trained on this ship. He had many ink drawings and a few paintings of the USS St Marys. Most of the drawings were of the life that a cadet had while working on the USS St Marys. I learned while cataloging and setting up for the USS St Marys model, that the model was built by an alumnus of the school, over a span of 20 years. 

While working on the exhibit I learned that Wiekum went on to work on many other ships after he graduated from the maritime college. I also learned that the museum received his work from his family who donated it after he had passed away. Through cataloging some of his other work and items, I learned that he also designed and patented a sight for a gun. Working on this exhibit also showed me the lives of cadets on the ships, which is a topic not always shown at museums or in maritime history. Most of this information I learned about Weickum was from my supervisor Bill Sokel, since he was working at the museum when the items were donated, and he researched Weickum on his own. I obtained much of the information about the USS St Marys from my preceptor, Mr. Sokel, but also did some of my own research on the ship at home through the internet. 

Overall Louis Weickum and the paintings and drawings he produced are an important part of the history of the school, the school’s first training ship, life on this ship, and maritime history in general.