The morgue houses between 5 and 7 million photographs dating back to the late 19th century, all of them stored in folders within file cabinets. Many of the photos haven't been viewed in decades and all of them are at risk of damage. In 2015, for example, the morgue experienced minor damage after water leaked in from a broken pipe.

The New York Times' massive photo archive is being digitized with Google's help

Published Nov 12, 2018 | Brittany Hillen

via https://www.dpreview.com/news/9040923328/the-new-york-times-massive-photo-archive-is-being-digitized-with-google-s-help

It's great that these images are going to be preserved. Neither this article nor another one I saw earlier discussed how access or licensing are going to work. I'm guessing that the NYT will retain the copyrights rather than place them in the public domain. Anybody know?