TACOMA, Wash. — Tucked beneath the Washington State Historical Society Research Center is a nitrate chamber full of historical hazards.
"Nitrate negatives have a tendency to spontaneously combust," Margaret Wetherbee said from the Washington State Historical Society said.
This is part of the priceless Asahel Curtis collection of more than 60,000 Washington state photos.
"It's really my role to make sure we're preserving them in the best way possible," Wetherbee said.
Wetherbee and her team are digitizing each and every one in exquisite detail.
"They're just these little moments of history that we get to witness," Wetherbee said. "And you can really feel and see that moment."
From golfers in the "sporty" garb of the early 1900s to workers blasting away a mountaintop with high-powered water jets, there are pictures depicting every facet of life back then.
"[These are] parts of the Denny Regrade in Seattle that I don't think we've seen before," Wetherbee said.
Every picture, a precious page in our state's story, from the 1890s to the 1940s.
"The images that you see in the collection are very much a mixture of things he was paid to take photographs of and things he was interested in, said Wetherbee. "And his feel for the moment, I think, is what really makes his photographs stand out."
Many of these faces, frozen in time, have gone unseen for more than 100 years.
"A treasure chest opening every day, like, we're on an adventure with this project," Wetherbee said.
One stop on that "adventure" – The Washington Hotel, all lit up for Seattle's first presidential visitor, Teddy Roosevelt. Another proves that a now-receding glacier once stretched all the way toward the treeline of Mt. Rainier. But that's not to say that every image is mind-blowing.
"I mean, some days it's, like, 50 cows. That can get a little tedious," Wetherbee said, laughing.
Though the photographer died in 1943, he still guides this project.
"So, this is a handwritten note card that Asahel Curtis did for each and every image that he took," Wetherbee said.
Many of the pictures were captured on fragile plates some of which have cracked or shattered over time.
"This is why we have to be so careful. There's a little piece of glass," Wetherbee said showing off a shard of glass that's broken off.
The preservation effort is a race against time. Many of the negatives have already started to deteriorate. But the team is on track to scan and store every photo, so that future generations, too, can travel back in time.
"Dive into our history. That's why we're here," Wetherbee said.
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