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An elderly acquaintance recently cleaned out her home, and as a result gave me a couple of original loaded Peters 38-56 Catridges. They look like a 30-30 on steroids.

Can anybody tell me about the 38-56 and the guns that shot them.

From Wikipedia:

The .38-56 Winchester Center Fire cartridge was introduced in 1887 by Winchester for the Winchester Model 1886, and was also used in the Marlin Model of 1895. Production of Model 1886s chambered in this cartridge ceased in 1910 due to lack of demand, while most commercial production of the cartridge itself ceased in the 1930s. New production loaded cartridges and unloaded brass cases are rare, and are often created using reformed .45-70 brass. The cartridge was originally intended to outperform the similar .38-55 Winchester, but in reality had very similar ballistics despite using more gunpowder.

Does the word "rare" mean these cartridges have collector value?

yep

Neighbor has a Marlin 1895 38-56. The Marlin was discontinued in (I think)1915, not sure how long Winchester made gun for that caliber. It's a black powder cartridge. Parent case is the 45-70. 38-55 and 30-30 share the same case.

My ace compadre was down at his place just north of Del Rio, Tx a couple of weeks ago and found a spent 38-56 case in some brush he was clearing.
Wonder how long that case lying there?
Wish it could talk.