MJT fire: A loss for lovers of the odd and obscure

The Museum of Jurassic Technology is one of Los Angeles’ quirkier cultural institutions, and it’s still reeling from the nighttime fire that damaged its building earlier this month. Late on July 8, a blaze destroyed the museum’s gift shop and caused smoke damage to several exhibits. The estimated revenue loss during the museum’s closure period could be $75,000, but it plans to reopen sometime next month.

The museum itself is in Culver City and has occupied a small but particular place in LA culture for the last 30-plus years. The MJT was founded in 1988 by David Hildebrand Wilson and Diana Drake Wilson and is known for its “willfully confusing and often disreputable” exhibits. The museum claims to be “dedicated to the advancement of knowledge and the public appreciation of the Lower Jurassic.” However, very little in the museum has to do with that geologic period. Rather, it’s inspired by the “cabinets of curiosity” or wunderkammers popular among Europe’s well-to-do during the Renaissance period, a sort of early version of the museum itself.

Over the years, the MJT has developed a loyal following, largely due to its recursive and layered narrative quality. While some exhibits are rooted in verifiable history, others are more ambiguous, sometimes drawing on real people or events but presented in such a way that some visitors leave unsure what’s fact or what’s fiction. One permanent exhibition, for instance, is dedicated to the work of Athanasius Kircher, a 17th-century polymath and Jesuit priest with encyclopedic interests. Another highlights the work of Armenian artist Hagop Sandaldjian, who is known for his ultra-miniature sculptures that are sometimes so small they’re presented inside the eye of a needle, made from a single human hair.

Other displays tilt further into the eccentric, such as a room of decomposing dice that once belonged to magician Ricky Jay, or “The Garden of Eden on Wheels,” a visual survey of trailer parks in the Los Angeles area. There are also stereographic radiographs of flowers, microscopic mosaics of butterfly wing scales, and a letter collection, written by amateur astronomers to the Mount Wilson Observatory between 1915 and 1935. In 2005, the museum even added a Russian tea room inspired by Tsar Nicholas II’s study in the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg.

Firefight and Aftermath

Writer Lawrence Weschler, who published a detailed account of the fire and whose 1996 book Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder is an investigation of the provenance of many MJT’s exhibits, has said that David Wilson first noticed the fire. The current director of the MJT lives in a home behind the museum and noticed smoke coming from the building. Wilson first grabbed two fire extinguishers, then ran outside to tackle the blaze, which he described later as a “ferocious column of flame” coming up the corner of the building’s exterior wall, the one that faces the street.

The extinguishers, however, were not sufficient for the task, and before long, the fire was spreading. Thankfully, Wilson’s daughter and son-in-law showed up just then with a larger extinguisher and managed to beat the fire just before the fire department arrived. When fire personnel later arrived, they told Wilson that they thought the entire building would have gone if they had arrived just one minute later.

While the fire damage was mostly contained to the museum gift shop, smoke did seep into the museum, with Wilson describing the damage as “like having a thin creamy brown liquid that had been evenly poured over all the surfaces—the walls, the vitrines, the ceiling, the carpets and eyepieces, everything.” Smoke infiltration is no easy thing to deal with, particularly at a museum that places such an emphasis on presentation. The MJT’s team of workers and volunteers has been at work cleaning and repairing the damaged areas since, a process which is described as slow and arduous.

In the meantime, Weschler has encouraged supporters to donate to the museum’s general fund, a way to help defray some losses and bring the building back to operational quality. Weschler made sure to emphasize that the MJT is “one of the most truly sublime institutions in the country,” one of those places that doesn’t neatly categorize itself into science or art or narrative.

It remains unclear exactly when the museum might open its doors again, but there is confidence it will be back to its weird and wonderful self soon, and its combination of satire, scholarship, and surrealism will be as resilient as ever.