But since this episode aired, what more have they learned about Asahel Curtis?

“The response to the episode was amazing,” says Berger. “Viewers let us know that they had Asahel Curtis images in their scrapbooks at home. People were finding things like lantern slides in their garage. And so we suggested that people contact the Washington State Historical Society because they have the largest collection of Asahel Curtis images.

“And the head of collections, Margaret Wetherbee, said that they were about to embark on this project of digitizing 55,000 Asahel Curtis images … [their] entire collection. They’re working from the original glass plate and nitrate negatives, which they keep in a giant freezer because they’re so fragile.”

The digitization is going well but slowly, Berger reports: “They can do about a hundred images a day.” But amazing discoveries are being made already: “They’re finding everything from news photos [to] promotional photos of landscapes, pictures of all kinds of people in all walks of life.”

Berger offers a backstory for a few of the collection’s more striking images: “This is the old Washington Hotel in Seattle on Denny Hill. And of course, neither of them still exist. One was washed away and the other torn down.

“The hotel is rimmed in incredible lights. It’s a night shot. And this was part of a welcome for Teddy Roosevelt. In 1903 he visited Seattle, and the city fathers wanted the entire city lit up as a kind of welcoming beacon. And this hotel where Roosevelt stayed was the centerpiece … Taking a photograph like that at night, it’s pretty amazing.