Not all artifacts are housed in the labyrinthian space of the MJT, will we say, really historically; Wilson has a sense of humor, a lively imagination and a brutal preference for the absurd. Lawrence Weschler has detected the origin (where relevant) of the exhibitions in his 1996 book, Mr. Wilson's cabinet of Verwondering: lovely ants, horned people, mice on toast and other wonders of Jurassic Technology. (It's a wonderful reading.)
The Weschler blog offers the most detailed report of what happened when the fire broke out in the night of 8 July. Wilson, who lives back, saw what happened, grabbed a few fire extinguishers and ran to the Gift Bopin-Entry Hall, where he emptied the Canisters in what Wilson describes as “a wild column of flame that the Far Street-bankrupt corner of the corner saved.”
That was not enough to put the fire out, but luckily Wilson's daughter and son -in -law soon arrived with a much larger extinguisher and pushed the flames. Shortly thereafter, firefighters showed up to eradicate all the continuing Sintels and said to Wilson: “Only one minute and you would probably have lost the entire building.” Wilson described the smoke damage “as if a thin creamy brown liquid had been poured over all surfaces – the walls, the showcases, the ceiling, the carpets and oculars, everything.”
Staff and volunteers have since been working to repair the damage, with smoke damage repairs particularly labor-intensive. Weschler concluded his blog post with a call for donations to the General Fund of the MJT to help the cash-piled museum resist this specific storm, where the MJT praised as “one of the truly sublime institutions in the country.”
