Wesley R. Harkins

[Grlakes]

Does anyone have an email address for Wes. If so, please send to grlakes@aol.com
He visited me quite often while I was Captain on the Louis R. Desmarais..................Thanks

[Capt Tom]

Wes will be 94 on the 4th of April. He was born the day before my mother. My mom was born on 4 3 21 which was easy to remember...

[Gerard Lawson]

After his tour at Skillings, Wes was the public relations director for Fraser Ship Yard until his retirement. This gave him an opportunity to increase his photo collection dramatically. I think that he has one of the best if not the best collections of first class ship photos in existence. Besides all of that, Wes is one heck of a nice guy and a devoted fan of the Great Lakes Shipping Industry and the people in it.

[Al]

I should have mentioned that if you haven't already done so, you should find a copy of Eric Hirsimaki's "The Lakers: 1950-1959," which features a number of Wes' photos.

[Al]

Wes lives in Duluth. At the time he took many of those photos in the 1950s he was working as the marine editor for Skilling's Mining Review, which was a mining magazine located in Duluth. If I remember correctly, he shot those photos using 4x4 cameras. Wes was well known and highly respected, so he had pretty good access to shoot from the Aerial Lift Bridge, grain elevators, ore docks, etc. It was a marvelous time to have that job because of the many new boats being built. He also wrote news articles and a column for the magazine, which are a delight to read when you can find them.

[Guest]

I have seen many photographs by photographer Wesley R. Harkins and was wondering if anyone had any type of bio on him. He appears to have done most of his work in the ports along the western end of Lake Superior during the 1950s era.