Original Photo Album with 39 Vintage Postcards and Photo of Ezra Meeker on the Oregon Trail. One signed.

V.p.: V.p., [ca. 1910-15]. Thirty-nine (39) vintage postcards and photo by Ezra Meeker (1830-1928) who was an American (Washington State) Pioneer who traveled the Oregon Trail by ox-drawn wagon as a young man and later became an influential advocate for its preservation. Cards measure 5.5 in. x 3.5 in. - 6.5 in. and are color, black and white and silver print. One is plate signed and titled 'The Alamo' 1911. #2 of the cards are corner mounted into a contemporary string-tied flexible cloth album with gilt cover lettering. Four are vertical shots and are just laid in (including one of Ezra in his buckskins and cradling his rifle. Two more are fold-out and one shows Ezra at Columbus Circle, NY and in the other he is raising the flag at Shoshone Falls. Two of the cards show Ezra at the fields of Dominguez Hill in historic Rancho San Pedro, the first air meet in the United States.Ezra Meeker was a pioneer of Washington Territory. He came across the Oregon Trail with his wife and infant child in 1852. In 1853, they moved into Washington Territory and finally settled in the Puyallup Valley. For over 50 years, they lived there, primarily raising hops. Ezra Meeker was extremely interested in the history of the Oregon Trail and wrote several books and booklets about it. In 1906, at age 75, he travelled the trail in the family wagon with his ox team. Along the way, he marked various locations he remembered from his 1852 journey. He also stopped in wherever he could gather an audience to talk about the importance of marking and remembering the trail.In 1910, he repeated the trail by wagon. In 1915, he covered much of the Oregon Trail in a Pathfinder touring car donated by the manufacturer. An airplane carried him over portions of the trail at age 93 in 1924. At the age of 98, he again attempted to follow the trail, but became ill and spent some time in a Detroit hospital. He completed his journey by train to Seattle, where he died shortly after, in 1928."