Austin Mecklem

[1][2][3] He did mural projects for the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression era before settling down in the artist colony at Woodstock, New York.

(He later often gave his birth year as 1894, but the earlier date has been confirmed by a family record and by a signed, witnessed 1926 application by Mecklem to the Navy for adjustment to compensation for his naval reserve service.)

One of Austin's brothers was Llewellyn Guy "L. G." Mecklem (1882-1973), daredevil aerialist and racecar driver, who made the first powered flight over Seattle, in a hydrogen-filled airship, in 1908.

Soon after the war ended, the Brooklyn headed to Vladivostok, Russia to support the American Expeditionary Force, Siberia.

After leaving the Navy, Mecklem then moved to New York City and studied at the Art Students League with Kenneth Hayes Miller and Boardman Robinson.

Mecklem's mural of Matthew Alexander Henson planting the American flag at the North Pole (1943). Recorder of Deeds Building, 515 D Street, Washington D.C.