[An outstanding photo album filled with 137 photographs and Real Photo Postcards recording amateur baseball teams, Oregon Agricultural College baseball and football players, several with manuscript notes on verso. Also present are many images of fishing trips and automobile camping in Bleeg’s 1912 Schacht Touring Car from Forest Grove down to Tillamook along the Wilson River in 1912, as well as camping and hiking on the Oregon Coast, and staying at Woodmere Cottage near Cannon Beach, Ecola, Oregon].

[Portland & Corvallis, OR: Charles Bleeg, Bert Pilkington, Oregon Agricultural College, 1911-1912]. Oblong folio. 15.25 x 11.25 in. [46 pp (unpaginated).], on thick brown paper stock, all w/ die-cut slots. With 137 photos on matte finish photo paper, and Real Photo Postcard paper stock, sized 3.5 x 5.5 in. up to 5 x 7 in., many w/ ink annotations on versos, some of the RPPC w/ MS ALS & postal cancels on versos. Contemporary limp brown cloth post-binder, gilt lettering stamped on front cover, punch sewn at gutter margin w/ brown silk braid (minor creasing, edgewear, minor bumping to yapp edges), still VG exemplar w/ most of the images retaining bright strong contrast. This Progressive Era photo album serves as an exceptional visual record of sporting life in Oregon and Pacific Northwest in the early 20th Century. The album opens with a number of photographs on photo paper stock and Real Photo Postcard paper stock depicting amateur teams in the Pacific Northwest, including players wearing uniforms marked with CH, H within Diamond border, and Columbia Hardware team uniform. There are also several images of the Oregon Agricultural College (now OSU) baseball team, including image of Walter “Keck going for first base” in May, 1911. Keck was center fielder for the 1910-1911 OAC baseball team; “Max Meyer - Twirling” for his wind-up as pitcher for the 1911 team, with note on verso from Bert to Charles asking him if “have you anything on the Popcorn Kings that has anything on this fellow?;” or “Our Ball Players” with Bert writing that “Mysterious Walker and his bunch of ball tossers. Walker is second from left. Moore was kicked out.” Bert also sent a few images of the OAC Regiment passing in review, marching, and the assembly hall at the College. Also included are shots of fishermen and strings of fish in and around Forest Grove, the Wilson River, and views of hiking and wagons driving on the beach near Cannon Beach and Ecola, Oregon, together with views of the Cannon Beach Home inn, and the group standing atop a massive Douglas Fir tree stump next to the cabin. In addition, to images of baseball teams playing, there are also photos of the Beaverton July 4th celebration in 1911, view of the Hotel Beaverton with flags and bunting draped across the front, and crowds in the street. An RPPC addressed to Charles from “Kenneth” alias “Crooky” details games played by the Emporia State Normal School against the Aggies with score of 6-6, won 7-2 against the Kansas State Manual Trade School when he suffered a concussion, and were playing the Kansas State Normals at Emporia later that week in 1911. One of the auto camping photos shows Bert Pilkington and his wife Annie Bleeg Pilkington (Charles’ older sister) setting with their two children against their touring car and auto tent, whiles others depict hiking in the forest, and fishing alongside the stream. The remainder of the album focuses on the 1912 fishing adventures by Charles Bleeg, and friends including Warren Woodard, and “Doc Wadsworth” as they drove from Forest Grove along the Wilson River to Tillamook and fishing and camping along the way. The images show the 1912 Schacht Brass Era touring car, members of the fishing party with their surprising amounts of catches of trout, camp scenes, digging out the Schacht from the mud alongside the rough roads, and the bucolic beauty of rural Oregon at the time. Four of the images are larger and include a “Flashlight” view of the group seated amidst their camping equipment, laundry hanging above their heads, hatchets on the wall behind, and fishing equipment, while others show fishing rods, creels, and equipment, and fish literally spilling out in a cornucopia and labeled “A day’s sport -- on the Big Nestucca, August 15, 1912.” Bleeg (1891-1979) worked for Archer & Combs who were wholesale hardware dealers specializing in automobile parts in the Brass Era, and also sold automobiles such as the Schacht. The company later became Archer & Wiggins, and he also worked for other firms in Portland, OR while attending North Pacific College to become a dentist like his older brother Fred Bleeg. After graduating in 1915, and serving in World War I, he set up offices in the historic Selling Building on NE 21st Ave. in Portland where his practice remained until the 1950’s. His son Charles Henry Bleeg (1922-2018) founded and operated the very successful Bleeg Motors on 16th & Sandy which was the oldest continuously operating car dealer in Oregon, and in fact he remained in his offices working up to his death. Pilkington (1879-1937) was captain of the Oregon Agricultural College football team from 1904-1905, and later became professor of chemistry, as well as athletic coach. He married Bleeg’s older sister who had attended OAC in 1907, and often referred to Charles in his notes on the RPPC’s as “Otter.”