In the early 2000s Alan Pflieger, a photographer in Huntington, Indiana (and my dad), acquired a huge archive of negatives from the Rickert Studio, which had been in operation from 1912 to 1986. He saved the negatives from being destroyed. My parents stored these negatives in their house for years until, through a funny series of events, they ended up making their way to the Huntington County Historical Society.  A few years before and several states south, Mike Disfarmer was documenting the rural community of Heber Springs, Arkansas. When he died, his negatives were in danger of being lost forever.