Paige, I came across a story about a Russian photographer. I will give the short less elegant version that reflects the need for prints over or inaddition digital. He convinced the Czar to let him take photos by train of all the small towns in Russia. After it was done, he decided he no longer liked the winters of Russia and sought  permission to not only leave Russia but take his images with him. They were colored images on glass plates, I believe, revealing their age. 

He must have been an amazing salesman, the Czar aggreed. He moved to Paris, stored them in the basement and seemed to have forgotten about them. He passed and a lot of time passed. They were unearthed and very salvagable after all these decades. National Geographic scanned them, so we now have a window to a very old Russia. 

If those had been digital files stored on some ancient forgotten drive type, if the data had survived, it is unlikely they would be resurrected. 

For most people the digital images captured are of the smaller sizes to max storage space. so not printable, as the screen resolution improves, they become even smaller there. 

The chance of seeing them, like I did mom my parents, could not happen.