The Daily — Inside ‘The Morgue’ at The New York Times

Date: November 30, 2025
Hosts: Rachel Abrams, with Jeff Roth (Morgue Manager) and contributions from Michael Barbaro
Episode Focus:
A rare, in-depth tour of “the Morgue,” the legendary New York Times archive, revealing its vast trove of history, the practical and emotional significance for journalism, and the singular character who runs it.

Episode Overview

This episode of The Daily takes listeners into the hidden heart of The New York Times: “the Morgue,” a sprawling, subterranean archive containing millions of clippings, photos, books, and artifacts. Guided by Jeff Roth, the Morgue’s longtime steward, host Rachel Abrams (with producer Rachelle Bonga) explores not only the physical enormity of the collection but its crucial role in the life of the newsroom — past and present. Through stories, banter, and hands-on demonstration, the episode unearths secrets, highlights the archive’s quirks, and ponders its future in the digital age.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Introducing the Morgue: Its Mystique and Mission

• Location and Secrecy
  • The Morgue is located in the basement, three levels down and next door to the main Times building in Midtown Manhattan.

    “It's kind of a secret.” — Rachel Abrams [02:04]

• Definition and Origins
  • Started in the late 1800s; systematized around 1905 for thoroughness and accessibility.
  • Holds old articles, photographs, reference books, and advance obituaries:

    "It’s where we store all the old stories and all the old pictures and various other things, parts of the book collection." — Jeff Roth [08:44]

  • The name "morgue" comes from “dead stories” being stored in filing drawers akin to a mortuary.

    “So once there were a number of drawers, it became a morgue, like the drawers in a morgue.” — Jeff Roth [10:18]

2. Touring the Archive: Scale, Scope, and Surprises

• Massive Scale
  • 600+ filing cabinets, thousands of boxes, totaling over 700,000 pounds.

    “This room weighs about £700,000.” — Jeff Roth [06:27]

  • 10 million+ physical clippings, dating back to at least the late 1870s.

    “I'd say upwards of 10 million or more.” — Jeff Roth [23:15]

• Remarkable Artifacts
  • "Rag edition" articles printed on linen-like paper from the 1950s.
  • Advance obituaries from as early as 1899.
• Rachel Returns a Long-Lost Book
  • Rachel returns a Ralph Lauren book she borrowed nearly 12 years prior:

    “I borrowed a book… and I never returned it.” — Rachel [01:44] “Oh, I know that book.” — Jeff Roth [01:54] “Do I owe you, like, a late fee or something?” — Rachel [02:02]

• Serendipity of Discovery
  • Journalistic value in finding information you weren’t looking for:

    “The joy… was that you would find what you did not know you were looking for.... The pleasure of serendipity. No morgue, no paper.” — A.M. Rosenthal, read by Rachel [07:31]

3. Organization: How the Morgue Works

• Filing System
  • Folders and boxes organized biographically (by person) and by subject (countries, diseases, etc.).
  • Filing idiosyncrasies: e.g., "Computers" is under "Industry, business, office machines, calculators, computers."

    “Computers were calculators and they were business machines.” — Jeff Roth [24:24]

  • Some subjects, like “TikTok,” still lack dedicated files.

    “There’s no TikTok file. You gotta make a TikTok file, I think.” — Rachel [24:48]

• Jeff as the Sole Guide
  • Jeff is the only one who knows the exact location of each folder:

    “The problem there is that I'm kind of the one who knows where that is.” — Jeff Roth [15:51]

4. The Human Side: Jeff Roth’s Backstory and Role

• A One-Man Institution
  • Jeff’s been at the Morgue since the early 1990s, originally hired to move boxes; previously worked in law enforcement and other fields:

    “Truthfully, I was doing like narcotics interdiction before.” — Jeff Roth [20:48]

  • Has worked through the Morgue’s shift from being a bustling hub (20–30 staff) to almost exclusively a one-person operation.
• Commitment to the Craft
  • Jeff’s sense of duty is tied to supporting journalism, not just administering a collection:

    “There’s that esprit de corps of you wanting to help them. And so how do you help them? By doing things like that.” — Jeff Roth [22:33]

• Attachment and Legacy
  • Despite starting unintentionally, he feels pride in being the keeper of the Times’ institutional memory.

5. Change Over Time: Digital Age, Diminishing Use

• Impact of Technology
  • Reporters rarely use physical files; the archive is “used, but it’s definitely not used like it was.” — Jeff Roth [14:51]
• Preservation and Value
  • The physicality provides context (e.g., what doesn’t appear online, editorial decisions of what to clip, serendipitous finds).

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On Serendipity and the Soul of the Paper:

  “No morgue, no paper. I did not know a reporter who did not understand that the morgue provided the memory and the history not only of the subject, but of the paper itself.”
  — (A.M. Rosenthal, read by Rachel Abrams) [07:31]

• On Peculiar Filing:

  “Television is under ‘radio, comma, television...’ Space is under ‘rockets, comma, space.’”
  — Jeff Roth [24:24]

• On the Weight of History:

  “This room weighs about £700,000.”
  — Jeff Roth [06:27]

• On Jeff’s Career Shift:

  “So you went from working in law enforcement to working in the morgue of the New York Times?”
  — Rachel Abrams [20:59]
  “Yeah, I had a friend who was working here and I was getting out of that....”
  — Jeff Roth [21:04]

• On the Loss of Physical Knowledge:

  "If you looked for this, let's say the family looked for it on the Internet, they wouldn't find it because it was killed after the first edition. And so they wouldn't find it."
  — Jeff Roth [05:51]

Timestamps for Major Segments

• [00:30] - Rachel introduces the “Morgue” and her overdue book to return.
• [02:22] - The team enters the Morgue and Jeff begins the tour.
• [04:38] - Examining random pieces: “rag edition” articles, lost stories.
• [07:31] - Rachel reads A.M. Rosenthal’s reflection on the Morgue’s serendipity.
• [08:44] - Jeff explains the origins and organization of the Morgue.
• [11:08] - Rachel returns her overdue book.
• [13:23] - The history of advance obituaries and earliest files.
• [14:51] - Discussion of how the Internet changed the Morgue’s usage.
• [15:28] - Jeff demonstrates how he tracks materials and organization.
• [16:49] - Exploring unique folders: etiquette, feuds, and chimney sweepers.
• [18:23] - Jeff recounts his first days, staffing, and merging of the picture and clippings morgues.
• [20:48] - Jeff’s surprising career background.
• [22:33] - On the pride and esprit de corps in supporting Times reporters.
• [23:15] - Estimation of 10 million+ clippings.
• [24:04] - Quirky filing logic, anachronisms (e.g., no TikTok file).

Conclusion

Inside the New York Times Morgue takes listeners beneath the surface (literally and figuratively) of a great news institution, showing how the physical past is intertwined with the present. Through the humor and humility of its host and its archivist, the episode is both a tribute to the analog memory of journalism and a meditation on change, legacy, and the human custodians who connect us to our collective stories.