I have only the skimpiest of verified info on this.  Supposedly the story was written up in one of the national photography magazines some years ago.

The old photographer died, (as old photographers do) and subsequently his wife passed on also.  They had no children and had been married a long time.  His heirs found a massive collection, tens of thousands, of pictures he had made of his wife over the course of their long marriage. The images were especially interesting because of the meticulous time line covering the fashions of the days, the evolution of photography, and the maturing of his lovely wife.

Because of this the collection reportedly was donated to a museum, and is on exhibit somewhere...perhaps the midwest.

Maybe this sounds like an urban legend...or not.  The museum in Milwaukee has a collection of 40,000 slides and negatives from a private collection, all showing bustling downtown stores and events.

Any knowledge of this...?