From the New York Times, I'm Michael Bavaro.

This is the Daily.

There are two stories from the 1960s

that America likes to tell about itself.

The Civil Rights Movement and the race to reach outer space.

Today, the brief moment when those stories collided.

It's Sunday, July 21st.

Emily Lutoff, how did you come upon this story?

So last fall, I'm down in the morgue,

which is this massive room, three stories underground,

stacked with filing cabinets full of the photo archives

of the New York Times.

And it's not just me down there.

It is a scanning team that is digitizing all these photos,

the obituaries team is pulling files

on whoever they're writing about that day.

And I was over in the science section

going through these Manila envelopes.

And I pull one out and it's stuffed full of images.

And the people who have folders down in the morgue

are incredibly well-known people.

They are Eleanor Roosevelt and Diego Rivera and Donna Karen.

...