This sounds like a very interesting project:

“If you have old apple trees in Washington, Idaho, or Oregon, we want your apples! We look for apple trees planted prior to 1920 and the older the better. If you mail us your apples we will try to identify what varieties you send us. Send an email to rebeccajmcgee@icloud.com or dbens23@gmail.com and we can send you instructions on picking and mailing the apples. Thank you!”

There’s both a Wikipedia page and a Facebook page, but, oddly, no page of their own.