From Mystery to History: Pennsylvania’s Bygone Lumber Industry – The New York Times

Though Harry Littell was teaching digital photography to Lois Barden, she came to class one day in 2004 with a question about a much older process. She had with her a box of 8-by-10 glass plate negatives that she had found 30 years earlier in a shed belonging to her husband’s grandmother near Rochester, N.Y. She asked her teacher what he thought. When he started scanning the plates, Mr. Littell was amazed. There were images of logging camps, railroads, studio portraits, children and outdoor scenes.