Portrait of Ezra Meeker (1830-1928) in his old age. Meeker had been an early white settler of the area who traveled from Iowa and farmed hops in Puyallup. He later advocated for the preservation of the Oregon Trail, which he and his family had used to travel west, and is credited with spearheading its preservation. The artist, Harriet Foster Beecher (1854-1915), traveled to the West Coast to attend the San Francisco School of Design. She moved to Seattle in 1880 and married Captain Herbert Foote Beecher. In 1881, Beecher opened what is thought to be Seattle’s first art studio. She painted Indigenous life in oils and watercolors, portraits of early white Seattle settlers, and landscapes. Beecher played a critical role in expanding the community of artists in Seattle through her work as a teacher at the Territorial University, in her home in Seattle, and later in Port Townsend.