 McCay 's original artwork has been poorly preserved . McCay insisted on having his originals returned to him , and a large collection that survived him was destroyed in a fire in the late 1930s . His wife was unsure how to handle the surviving pieces , so his son took on the responsibility and moved the collection to his own house . The family sold off some of the artwork when they were in need of cash . Responsibility for it passed to Mendelsohn , then later to daughter Marion . By the early twenty @-@ first century , most of McCay 's surviving artwork remained in family hands . 
