NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – The Museum of Chinese in America is assessing the damage done to its collection of artifacts and other items after a fire tore through a Chinatown building Thursday night—and the assessment is not good.
As many as 85,000 irreplaceable artifacts that document the history of Asian people in the United States were likely lost in the fire at a building on Mulberry Street that houses the items.
Among the artifacts lost: textiles, letters, traditional wedding dresses and passenger ship tickets curated by the museum. An 1883 document about the Chinese Exclusion Act was also believed destroyed, as were photos of Chinatown in the 20th century.
Museum officials said the artifacts include not only those from the Chinese-American community but also the larger Asian-American community.