i'm jamie colby for "strange inheritance." thanks so much for watching. and remember... >> it's just money. can't take it with you. >> a ball club older than mighty casey... >> they were recognized as the best team of the 1860s. >> their 155-year-old baseball card... >> we are looking at a very significant piece of baseball history here. >> and she's looking at a very strange inheritance. >> he's my great-great-uncle on my dad's side. >> which one is he? >> now here's the payoff pitch. >> one of the big ones. this was a family heirloom. >> will there be joy in mudville... >> he was looking for a piece of the action, but i didn't know that. >> ...with jamie at the bat? [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] ♪

>> i'm jamie colby, and i'm in the berkshire mountains on my way to great barrington, massachusetts. i'm meeting a woman whose ancestor played on one of the great teams in the early days of baseball. his picture is on her strange inheritance, which may just be the world's oldest baseball card. >> my name is florence sasso. my great-great-uncle archibald mcmahon was a member of the 1860s atlantic nine baseball tm. i inherited this card fromy mother when she passed away. >> hi. i'm jamie. >> hi. i'm florence. >> heard you have a great story and a very strange inheritance. also heard you're a new york girl. >> yes. >> i'm from queens. >> i'm a brooklyn girl. >> uh-oh. 75-year-old flo lives alone and runs an electrolysis business from her house. what a lovely home. she explains that fate has handed her a very unusual

inheritance in the form of a 2 1/2-by-4-inch antique baseball card. oh, my goodness. is this what i think it is, florence? may i touch it? >> sure. >> look at the players. 1860. >> before the civil war. >> and a relative of yours is in here? >> my great-great-uncle archibald mcmahon is in here. >> which one is he? >> we don't know. it hasn't been identified. >> well, can you make a guess on whi is there any resemblance to you or your parents? >> no. i couldn't figure it out. i was just looking at the ears, because that side of the family had big ears. >> who were the brooklyn atlantics? >> i think it's the oldest baseball team in history in brooklyn. ♪ >> at least one of the oldest, says ed elmore, captain of today's incarnation of the brooklyn atlantics. so brooklyn atlantics started when? >> they played a long time.

they were recognized as the best team of the 1860s. >> baseball before the civil war? you can look it up. the first officially recorded game is actually played in 1846. and within 15 years, the sport is on the verge of a boom. these guys practicing today in long island, new york, use the same rules and equipment as old archibald did back then. was pitching different? >> the first 40 years, actually, of baseball was underhand pitching. for the first 20 years, if a ball was caught on a bounce it was an out. it was thought of as a gentlemen's game at the very beginning just by who was playing, not necessarily by how they played. >> so who is archie mcmahon? a butcher in brooklyn is about all flo knows. that's a sign of how organized baseball is evolving and becoming more democratic. it's no longer just a game played by wealthier men --

doctors, lawyers, and bankers. and although flo can't identify which one of these gentlemen is that great-great-uncle on her father's side, we can i.d. couple of his teammates. at far left is chris smith. two men to the right is shortstop dickey pearce, who's credited with inventing the bunt. looks like a straitjacket. baseball uniforms have really changed over the years. i can see why. got to love this cap, though. take me out to the ballgame. so this is the bat. i see they're not playing with gloves. what about the balls? >> well, i have just the man to talk to for that. wild horse. >> wait. wild horse? >> that's his nickname. he runs the bases with wild abandon. >> you make those? >> i start with a rubber center, two cords of yarn. everything was handmade.

>> ready? >> all right. >> really? oh, no. no gloves. aah! oh. it didn't hurt that bad. have you heard of the name archibald mcmahon? >> he's listed in the roster of the 1860 atlantics. actually, he played center field, and he batted third. so that's an indicatn that he was one of the better hitters. >> after the 1860 season, however, he becomes a bit of an enigma. he may have played for a pro team in manhattan, but census records after the civil war show him working as a butcher in san francisco. after that, his only appearance in the public record is a mention in the 1928 obituary of his younger brother, john, a civil war veteran. >> in the obituary, it talks about his brother, how he loved baseball. >> the obituary reads, "he had a picture in his home of the

original atlantics team, of which his brother, archibald mcmahon, was a member." when they mention it in an obit, you know the card is a true family heirloom. flo's father, joseph, is 17 years old when his uncle john dies. it becomes his strange inheritance. but it's his wife, mildred, who keeps it safe in their brooklyn home. >> my mother had had it in a fanny farmer box in a secret drawer in a piece of our furniture. >> when florence grows up, she moves to massachusetts, gets married, and then divorced. over time, the family is drawn back together by old age and illness. eventually, flo convinces her parents to move up to massachusetts and live with her. >> the fellow i was dating at the time was an architect, and he designed an addition for us. >> how much did that cost? >> $125,000. >> did you have that money? >> no. i had to remortgage the house. >> flo's dad dies in 1995.

her mom, mildred, inherits the card. mildred is well aware flo has gone into debt and wishes she could help. but it never strikes her that she has the means until great-great-uncle archibald comes up in a genealogy class at the senior center. so he suggested that that card could be worth what? that's next. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question. who in 1888 declared baseball "the american game"? queen victoria of england, indian chief sitting bull, or poet walt whitman? the answer in a moment. [burke] at farmers, we've seen almost everything,

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♪ >> so, who first declared baseball "the american game"? if you picked walt whitman, you're right. in 1888, he wrote... [ crowd cheering ] >> long before the brooklyn dodgers and ebbets field, these guys, known as the atlantics nine, are kings of that borough's diamonds. this 155-year-old picture of the team has been passed down in florence sasso's family ever since. one of the team's stars, archibald mcmahon, was her great-great-uncle.

flo's mom, mildred, is caretaker of the card for years. she keeps itquirred away in a candy box and takes it with her when she moves into flo's house in great barrington, massachusetts. but neither she nor her daughter knows which guy in the picture is uncle archie. what'd she tell you about it? >> she said, "put this in with your genealogy." >> in the spring of 2015, flo's been digging into their family background at the free genealogy program at the local senior center. so do you bring the card to show the class? >> i brought the card to the senior center. he said, "oh, my god. it's perfect." >> "he" is volunteer steve strommer, who runs the class. >> my interest in genealogy started a long time ago. but it's taken on a life of its own, and it's pretty much an obsession. we couldn't find too much on archibald. but that was a very old card. and she said, "how much is

this?" and i said, "well, i'll see if i can find out." >> are you thinking to yourself, "i really have something valuable here"? >> yes, i did. >> especially after steve spots on the internet an 1865 brooklyn atlantics card. it had gone for $92,000 at auction in 2013. florence's card is five years older and may be even more valuable. >> i used to wonder, "why do people jump up and down when something exciting happens?" and here i was doing that. >> pushing 101, flo's mother, mildred, isn't quite jumping up and down. but if she can help pay off the addition flo built for her, e's denily up for some moneyball. florence, who has no children to pass the card on to, is game as well. that's when steve strommer suggests contacting an auction house. on your behalf? >> yes. he made the connection. >> i was just, you know, doing my job, just trying to facilitate getting

this card in the right hands. >> strommer takes the photo home, scans it, and sends it to chris ivy, who specializes in sports memorabilia at heritage auctions in dallas. >> when the first e-mail came in with images, i showed it to one of my other experts. and we thought, "it looks right from the images, and we are looking at a very significant piece of baseball history here." the photo was in good shape. and the overall condition of the card is very strong. >> of course, it's not exactly the kind of card later generations will collect with bubble gum and wax packs. >> there was no bubble gum involved with this card, no. i don't think bubble gum was around, actually, until the early 1900s. it's considered a carte de visite, a cdv. >> a carte de visite, or cdv, was more like a business card or a souvenir handout at a time when photography was still a novelty. >> i think it was because they were the champions of the league and were proud of that and wanted something to commemorate

it. >> while chris and his team evaluate the card, florence feels steve's way off base. he's taken control not only of the process but the card itself. i think this next part of the story goes under the heading "don't mess with a girl from brooklyn." >> was he looking for a piece of the action? >> he was looking for piece of the action, but i didn't know that. i went down to his house, and i said, "my mother would like to have the photograph back." and he said, "oh, it's safe with me." and i said, "no, and i'd like to give you some money for the work that you did at home." and he said no. >> if there was any disconnect, it was with flo, who, i guess, wanted to know if i was going to charge her anything. and she kept asking me quite often, you know, "keep track of your hours." >> i said, "just give me back the picture." >> and then, she would say, "i have to talk to my lawyer," and all of that. and i said, "fine with me." >> you had to get that card back. >> yes.

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the genealogy instructor at her local senior center. >> and i went to the doctor. they doubled my blood-pressure mecation 'cause i was so upset about him. >> she's taken a family heirloom, this 1860 baseball card of the brooklyn atlantics, which includes her great-great-uncle archibald mcmahon, and given it to steve. it may be the oldest baseball card in existence. and he's researching its value. but it appears to florence that he doesn't want to give it back. >> you went yourself to the gentleman's house to get it? >> yes. he really wanted to hold on to it. but i didn't trust him with it. >> so essentially, he was trying to help you. he just wanted to be paid. >> yes. >> i may have half tongue-in-cheek, half joking, said, "well, i'm your agent. 10%." but i wasn't really gonna charge her with that. >> you didn't want to pay him. >> i was going to give him a generous gift. but you're not allowed to give them even five cents if they're

a volunteer of the town. >> at this point, both steve and florence learned that town employees may not receive additional income from their official duties. >> the interaction that was going on about being reimbursed was prior to my knowledge about the ethics of town employees taking money. >> so steve gives the photo back to florence. having benched steve, she reaches out herself to heritage auctions. a representative flies to massachusetts to bring the card in for authentication. heritage shows up at your house. >> within 24 hours. >> but while the auction house gets to work, flo's mother is admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. >> may 13th. she was 100 and sound of mind right till thend. and every night, she would just say, "thank you for taking care of me," and then a big smile, and she'd say, "did we get the money yet?" >> later that day, mildred sasso passes on. and what may be the world's

oldest baseball card is now florence's strange inheritance. it doesn't take long to confirm the card is real. >> given the fact that it was in florence's family for nearly 160 years, that's great provenance. and provenance is always key. >> the 1928 obituary of archibald's brother, john, provides a crucial piece of evidence of the card's authenticity. >> that newspaper obituary noted that john was an ardent fan of baseball and he had an original photo of the brooklyn atlantics. so that obituary was referring to this very card. >> remember the 1865 brooklyn atlantics card that sold for $92,000? that kind of money would go a long way to paying off the debt flo incurred when she took in her parents. is her card in that ballpark? chris ivy thinks it is and knows exactly where to find out.

>> one of the big ones. this was a family heirloom. >> that's next. so is this. all right. let's send one down the pike. let's see what you got. what's your strange inheritance story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website -- strangeinheritance.com. i'm just a guy who wants to buy that truck.

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♪ >> now back to "strange inheritance." >> in 1860, florence sasso's great-great-uncle and his teammates on the brooklyn atlantics posed for this photo. 155 years later, it may be the oldest baseball card in existence. florence is about to learn just how valuable that makes it. the auction house estimates its value at 50 grand-plus. that would help cover the $125,000 she spent remodeling her home to make room for her

elderly parents. then again, another brooklyn atlantics card recently went for $92,000. an extra 40 grand would really help. in july 2015, enthusiasts from around the country gather in chicago for the national sports collectors convention. >> $9,500. now to $10,000. where are my cubs fans now? >> the highlight of the auction -- flo's 2 1/2-by-4-inch strange inheritance featuring the pre-civil war brooklyn atlantics. >> one of the big ones. this was a family heirloom. >> how proud are you when you see your family card in a catalog? >> everybody was so excited because they didn't know about baseball before the civil war. >> and it was a bit of brooklyn that you could bring to this town. >> that's right. >> you can follow the auction online, but florence is having computer problems. even so, she feels the same nervous anticipation palpable in that room. >> earliest known team card

that we're aware of. what do we have for lot 009? >> $70,000. >> $70,000. this is gonna go big. $70,000. now to go to $75,000. >> from the start, the bidding is fierce. >> we've got captains of industry and people that are millionaires, billionaires. it's just people that have a passion to collect things. >> $85,000. now to bid $90,000. $95,000 to you, sir. i go you. $100,000. now to $110,000. >> like a sandy koufax fastball, the bidding quickly blows away the $50,000 estimate. >> $110,000. now to $120,000. this is really a smithsonian-type piece here. $120,000. now to $130,000. >> most collectors go into a live auction with a game plan. but you can get enthralled with the moment. so, you know, throw caution to the wind and start bidding. >> $130,000. now to $140,000. $150,000. now to $160,000. you want $155,000? you gonna walk away for five grand? $150,000. i've got it right here. who's gonna beat him? $150,000. anyone else? $150,000. bid $160,000? who's gonna beat him? anyone else now? anyone else?

to white. $150,000. [ applause ] thanks very much. >> after the auction house commission is added, it brings the total to $179,000. and the winning bidder? >> a well-known 19th-century collector, but he didn't want to be revealed. >> the good news comes to florence from a surprising source. >> how'd you learn about it selling? >> steve, the genealogist, was following it on the internet. >> i saw the very end of the bidding for the card. and i called up flo right away and said, "this is great." >> and he called to say it was sold for $179,000. >> that beats flo's wildest expectations. >> i was just hoping to clear my mortgage, actually. >> so basically, the money that you'll get from your family card will help you defer the cost of taking care of mom and dad. >> almost to the penny. >> are you resolved now

that whatever happened in the past is the past? >> absolutely. >> it worked out okay? >> i'm very happy. >> so is steve strommer, that he and flo are friends again. >> we're like brother and sister, basically. you know, she comes in. we'll go through a little bit of genealogy, find what happened to archibald mcmahon. >> and maybe someday they'll even figure out which one of these guys really is old uncle archie. so what ever became of the old brooklyn atlantic dynasty? up until 1869, all the players were amateurs. two years later, the national association of professional base ball players was formed. but the atlantics couldn't afford the cost of the new league, so they didn't join. some of their best players took a walk and signed up with pro teams. i don't get to walk. i got to hit the ball. all right. let's send one down the pike. let's see what you got.

oh. i'm jamicolby for "strange inheritance." and remember -- you can't take it with you. >> treasures stashed in the attic! >> they hadn't been touched for 40 years. that was like [gasps] shocking and exciting. [ camera shutter clicking ] >> history saved from the trash! >> she was a dumpster diver. >> she absolutely was. >> can these heirs cash in on their startling discovery? >> it's hard to believe that you had an ansel adams lining a drawer. >> and your reaction? >> "wow." [ chuckles ] [ camera shutter clicks ] >> but it's not so black and white. >> did you say to yourself, "uh-oh -- legally, maybe i can't do this?" >> i was concerned about that. >> will this photo finish... bring riches...or regrets? >> i was also feeling like, if i sold too many, then i would lose that part of my mother. [ door creaks ]

[ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] i'm jamie colby, and today i'm on staten island in new york city. so, picture this -- a packrat mom spends a lifetime stuffing her home. her kids wonder, "ma, when are you ever gonna get rid of all this stuff?" of course, she never does. and then a classic "strange inheritance" tale comes into sharp focus. >> my name is jaye smith. our mom, carol, had an expression -- "never forget to look in your attic." we thought she meant it metaphorically. now we know she meant it literally, as in, "there really is valuable stuff in our attic." >> hi, jaye. jaye, an executive coach, has invited me here to her mother's house. shall we? >> yeah. come on in.

>> thank you. in 2011, jaye's mother, carol, a retired editor of a photography magazine, dies at the age of 86. jaye and her brother, lee, inherit her home... along with the task of cleaning it out. and there is lots to clean. was mom a hoarder? >> [ laughing ] yes, she was. her motto was, you know, "waste not, want not." >> the most daunting challenge is the deceptively capacious attic. >> whoa! jaye... there's so much space in here! it's like a secret hiding place. it's cleared out now. not back then. lee, are we talking a hazmat situation? >> pretty close. >> paint a picture for me, jaye. >> well, when we came up it was overwhelming. it was just boxes and boxes and boxes -- broken lamps, several vacuum cleaners, old irons, you know, all kinds of crazy things.

>> working through the heap, spy some curious items in a corner. >> and i thought, "oh, god. what's this?" >> what we saw was... piles and piles of envelopes... and tubes. >> lee and jaye open them up to find a mysterious assortment of photographs. >> they were kind of random -- different types of images, stills and biographical photographs. >> more than 1,500 of them! did you know immediately what these were? >> no, i didn't. some of them i knew that they were well-known people and they were probably shot for newspapers or magazines. >> unraveling the mystery demands a closer look at the career of jaye and lee's mom, carol carlisle. >> she had a great job. it was with popular photography magazine, and, at the end of her career, was the managing editor of the magazine, which was

unusual for women at that time. >> carol is also smack in the middle of the golden age of photography in the top magazines of the day, including life, look, and national geographic. outside of work, carol, a twice-divorced single mom, is just as passionate about photography. her two favorite subjects can attest. >> she was a very good photographer herself. she had a light meter that she carried with her everywhere. >> you ever get tired of her taking your picture? >> oh, yes. [ both laugh ] >> but is carol someone who literally brings her work home with her? what did you know about where mom found these or acquired them? >> well, i do recall as a child, growing up ithis magazine office, in the back by the freight elevator, there were these huge canvas dumpsters. and they were filled to the brim

with photographs. so, i imagine her passing by them and, you know, looking across the top -- saying, "oh, that's attractive," "that's nice," and collecting them over a series of years. >> after carol's death in 2011, the photos just sit for several months. what you think you'd do with it? >> we really didn't know. >> but everything changes when jaye holds a garage sale to sell off some of her mother's stuff. >> just toward the end, a man came up, and he asked me if i had some cameras to sell, and i said, well, no, i didn't have cameras. >> but jaye does have mom's old photos. >> so i pulled out one. it was of a little old man with birdcages and doves. i showed him the photograph, and his eyes popped out of his head. he said, "may i take a picture of it?" and i looked suspiciously at him, and, "why?" >> he tells jaye he recognizes

the print as the work of henri cartier-bresson, considered the master of candid photography. and that old man with the birds? that's the renowned french painter henri matisse. >> he said, "i have a friend who worked with cartier-bresson, and he would know the value of the photograph." so i said, "oh, in that case, sure." i didn't have any expectations of it at all. it was curiosity, really. >> a few hours later, the man calls jaye back. what did he tell you? >> $12,000. >> $12,000 for one? >> "oh, wow." i was shocked. i was really shocked. then he said, "what else do you have?" >> what else did jaye and lee have? had they stumbled across a treasure trove? >> when i saw this, it was the most exquisite thing that i could possibly have hoped to find. >> that's next. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz

question. where was this 1826 image -- the oldest surviving camera photo -- taken? the answer when we return. at angie's list, we believe

there are certain things you can count on, like what goes down doesn't alys come back up. [ toilet flushes ] so when you ne a plumber, you can count on us to help you find the right person for the job. discover all the ways we can help at angie's list. >> so, where was the oldest surviving camera photo taken? the answer is...

titled "view from the window at le gras," the photo is of this estate and the surrounding countryside. >> in staten island, new york, jaye smith and her brother, lee, are piecing together their strange inheritance -- 1,500 rare and possibly very valuable photographs, found hidden in their mother, carol's, attic. >> they hadn't been touched for 40 years -- just stuffed in the corner. >> the siblings assume their mom saved the prints from the waste piles of the photography magazine where she worked for three decades. did you have any idea what they were worth? >> not a clue. >> but jaye and lee want to find out. they call in photo appraiser elizabeth eicholz from christie's to make sense of the snapshots. as elizabeth examines the collection, she is first pleasantly surprised, then amazed. look! there are those classic

shots of brigitte bardot... winston churchill... and ernest hemingway... hundreds of famous images by some of the most renowned photographers of the time -- richard avedon, ansel adams, cornell capa, and more. >> it was extraordinary in its vastness -- the number of photogras,ph the number of artists, the span of decades. >> and each individually hand-printed by one of those masters, using now-vanishing darkroom arts... selecting just the right contrast paper to expose under a carefully calibrated enlarger, lightening and darkening isolated areas with dodging and burning tools, dipping each sheet in developer and fixing solutions for exactly the right time at precisely the right temperature... and still not knowing what

you've created until each has drip-dried and the light comes on. those were the days of darkrooms. how much of a role does the quality of a print play in selling photography of that era? >> a photographer's negative can be compared to a composer's score, where the print is the performance, so that can give a sense for how important the physical print is. >> it makes it art. >> exactly. carol certainly knew that there was something more special to these than just pieces of paper. >> a few really stand out, like this nighttime manhattan cityscape taken by pioneering female photographer berenice abbott in 1932. >> this is one of abbott's most well known, if not her very most iconic, image. she had to wait until the shortest day of the year in order for the light to be just

right. when i saw t it was the most exisite thing that i could possibly have hopeto find. vintage examples are extremely rare. it's a diamond in the rough. >> that diamond in the rough could buy a gemstone from tiffany's. elizabeth appraises this single print for $20,000. bing, bing, bing, bing, bing! >> that was like [gasps] shocking and exciting. >> this image of two bullfight attendants was shot by candid photography pioneer henri cartier-bresson with one of the first fast, hand-held cameras that let photographers work in dangerous locations, like bullrings. >> this image definitely could stand up to the vintage examples that you would see in any of the museums today. >> the appraiser estimates this print at around 10 grand. she then selects 22 pictures she feels are the most marketable

for auction and values them at around 120k. and your reaction? >> "wow." [ chuckles ] >> but jaye and lee can't head to the auction block quite yet. while their mother may have had the prints in her possession, true ownership may lie elsewhere. how can jaye sell photos that she just happened to have the prints? don't the photographers own their own images? >> well, that's a good question, and it's one of that comes up time and time again. >> will their strange inheritance be someone else's gold mine? you go to all the work of uncovering and archiving, but there's a chance you don't own them, you can't do anything with them? that's next! >> here's another quiz question for you. why are 19th-century photos dominated by stony, solemn faces? were the subjects typically... uncomfortable from the hot

lights... self-conscious about their teeth... or mimicking painted portraits? the answer after the break.

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>> so, why are 19th-century photos dominated by stony, solemn faces? the answer is "c." these early photos mimic traditional european portrait painting, where smiles were only worn by peasants, children, and drunks. >> a stash of original photographic prints in mom's attic -- the strange inheritance of jaye and lee smith -- may be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. but there's one big problem --

they may not be able to sell them. did you say to yourself, "i have 1,500 or more images, but uh-oh -- legally, maybe i can't do this"? what are the issues? do you own it? >> i was concerned about that, as some of them are very, very famous and well-known images. >> enter the lawyers for a nerve-wracking evaluation. ultimately, they conclude the photographers no longer own the physical prints. on what basis did the lawyer tell you you have legal ownership? >> "a," that i've had them for 40 years, but that all photographers who submit photographs to a publication do so with the expectation that it will not be returned. >> so you own the print. you don't own the image. >> correct. i do not own the image. >> but what about the magazine? shouldn't it own the photos, not carol carlisle's heirs?

again, the lawyers opine that once the magazine placed the photos in the trash, it surrendered its rights to the prints and jaye and lee can sell them. >> i think a lot of people in carol's potion are probably kicking themselves, knowing what had sort of gone through their hands. what was somebody else's trash, at that point, was her treasure. >> she was a dumpster diver. >> she absolutely was, yeah. >> with their rights now clearly in focus, jaye and lee race their mother's photos to the auction block. in october 2013, an auction of 22 of the most valuable prints takes place at christie's in new york city, with the whole family in attendance. >> the photos are a smash hit. the shot of those bullfight attendants, appraised at 10k, brings in almost $30,000, while the portrait of matisse goes for a more-than-expected 18 grand.

and the berenice abbott cityscape, valued at $20,000, earns $90,000! in all, the group fetches 200k. it's a lot of money. >> it's a lot of money -- a lot of money for us as a family. it was a very wonderful, exciting evening for everybody. >> bit by the auction bug, the family's itching to sell off more of their strange inheritance. >> i felt like now i had a responsibility for the family to sort of keep things rolling along. >> but a second, smaller auction doesn't draw the same interest. two of the photos fail to sell, though a thi brings in $4,400. >> even christie's was surprised. what they were worth and what they actually sell for is, of course, two different things, i've learned. >> maybe the family was rushing things so soon after their mother's death. >> it did start getting me to think about, "well, maybe i should slow down and stop this right now," and i was also

feeling like, if i sold too many, then i would lose that part of my mother, so keeping the images close to me and to the family felt more like keeping her around. so i just stopped everything for quite a while. >> with still more than 1,000 rare photographic prints, jaye and her brother, lee, trust their next step will present itself in time. and it does, after another discovery, this time in mom's hall closet. >> it sort of re-energized me about the whole thing. it was like another part of the treasure hunt, you know? "what is this, and what is it worth?" >> the answers, next. what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website -- strangeinheritance.com.

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photographs they found stashed in their mother, carol's, attic in staten island, new york. they've sold some of the most valuable ones, and now they're having mixed feelings about the whole thing. >> i felt like i was losing her. it felt like they embodied her. if they were going out to strangers, what would be left? and so that memory of her was walking out the door. >> did you ever say to yourself, "maybe we're rushing?" >> i think it was, "let's take our time and let's back up and re-evaluate." >> but in early 2015, another discovery nudges them back into action. >> i was clearing out our hall closet, and there, tucked in the corner... >> was...? >> another envelope of photographs. inside, there were other celebrities, so a lot of well-known, recognizable people. i feel like, somehow, my mother is pointing us toward these

things, like "don't forget this, and don't forget that." >> or maybe their mom is saying, "don't forget...me!" so this time jaye signs up with a virtual cultural arts center called poba. the site features creative types who've died without full recognition of their talents or legacies, says managing partner jennifer cohen. >> we connect people with all the resources that they need to archive, to catalog, to preserve, to appraise, and sometimes even to sell and promote their work. >> over the next few months, the organization sorts through the prints carol rescued and curates them in a permanent online gallery. >> some of these photos are iconic. it really shows the entire range of great black-and-white photography over a very important period of time. >> including, from the hall-closet prints, this marilyn monroe... >> jumping quite high, actually.

>> it's a great, great photograph. >> it certainly seems like a happy and magical capturing of the '60s. >> ...a candid snapshot of pablo picasso... >> eating a fish, obviously, or, having eaten a fish. >> yes. all that's left are the bones. >> ...and another landscape by ansel adams. >> it's hard to believe that you had an ansel adams lining a drawer. >> yes. [ laughs ] >> have you given some thought as to what you'd like to keep, what you'd like to sell? >> i'm not just considering myself. it's my family's collection, as well. but i think the idea is to get them out into the world and let other people enjoy them. >> classic prints created by some the world's most innovative photographers, saved from a pile of trash by a sharp-eyed editor with a love of art who, for reasons of her own, leaves them for her kids to discover once she's gone.

you think mom was revealing something to you from the grave? >> i feel like i'm reliving her steps, you know, for those 30-something years that she was really entrenched and engrossed in photography. >> what was that old saying of carol's -- "never forget to look in the attic"? now her children are thinking, "maybe mom didn't mean it so literally, after all." >> the older i get, the more appreciative i am of what she did and who she was. [ camera shutter clicks ] you know, when carol first became interested in photography back in the 1950s, it was estimated that the whole world was taking about a billion photos a year. now it's more than a billion a day. i'm a lot like carol. i can't bear to see a snapshot go in the trash, but, fortunately, i don't have an overflowing attic -- just a seriously clogged hard drive.

i'm jamie colby. thanks so much for watching "strange inheritance," and remember -- you can't take it with you. stopped. robert gone at 70. . john: a mob can be an ugly thing. in the past, mobs kill people they said were witches. today they still kill people with whom they disagree. >> mobs are always is dangerous, destructive things. >> reporter: we focus on american mobs. >> liberals crawl on the mobs. >> get off the campus. >> the koch brothers and their cronies. >> i think they should be in jail. >> private property. john: mob rules, that's our show tonight.