A fire ripped through a building in New York City’s Chinatown on Jan. 23, 2020. 

The building housed the bulk of the collection of the Museum of Chinese in America, about 85,000 pieces.

Staff rushed to the site but could do nothing but watch. Now they can’t enter the building for three weeks due to safety concerns.

Only items on view at the nearby museum are safe.

Staff are worried fire and water damage have destroyed the collection.

Items likely lost include letters from the 1800s from Chinese bachelors in the U.S., tickets for passage to the U.S. from China, oral histories, traditional wedding dresses and old photos.

Also likely lost is a document from 1883 about the U.S. Chinese Exclusion Act.

People have been sharing their concerns for the museum online and the Museum has set up a Gofundme campaign.

Three days after the fire, they’ve raised more than $50,000.

Writer Ava Chin told the New York Times that the museum had objects that other museums tended to ignore.

“It is the only, the single most important, repository of New York’s Chinese community,” Chin said.