After traveling through time and space to return to its birthplace on Marco Island in Southwest Florida, the world-famous Key Marco Cat will remain at home for quite awhile longer. Visitors to the Marco Island Historical Museum (MIHM) now can view the enigmatic feline through 2026.
An unprecedented five-year loan extension by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History continues the original 2019-2021 loan for another five years. This is the longest period of time that the Key Marco Cat has been on loan to any other institution ever.
Carved from native hardwood, the Key Marco Cat was created some 500 to 1,500 years ago by Southwest Florida’s early Calusa people or their Muspa ancestors. For the first time since its discovery, it is reunited with other rare pre-Columbian artifacts discovered on Key Marco in 1896 during a Smithsonian sponsored archaeological expedition led by archaeologist and anthropologist Frank Hamilton Cushing. This expedition produced some of the greatest discoveries in the history of North American archaeology.
Because they were buried in an oxygen-free layer of muck, the rare wooden objects were astonishingly well preserved. Many began disintegrating upon exposure to the air. However, expedition artist Wells M. Sawyer recorded their original details and colors in field photographs and watercolors. Surviving artifacts and field recordings provide extraordinary insight into the lives of the Calusa Indians who dominated Florida’s Southwest Coast and controlled South Florida when the Spanish arrived in the 16th Century. Since their discovery, the returning Key Marco artifacts have been preserved by the Smithsonian and University of Pennsylvania (UPENN).
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The Key Marco Cat (On display through April 2026)Image courtesy of Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution (A240915)The half cat/half human figure is considered one of the finest pieces of pre-Columbian Native American art ever discovered in North America. At just six inches tall, the wandering feline has captured the public’s imagination for over a century. It continues to intrigue all who view it. |
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Wooden Human Figurine (On display June 2021 through April 30th 2024)Image courtesy of Penn Museum (image #127118)A wooden human figurine, one of the 500 to 1,500-year-old Key Marco artifacts discovered in 1896 by archaeologist and anthropologist Frank Hamilton Cushing, |
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Key Marco Deer Figurehead (On display July 2023 to June 2024)Image courtesy of Penn Museum (image #150128)The Key Marco deer figurehead is one of several painted wooden animal carvings excavated in 1896 from the Key Marco archaeological site on what is now Marco Island. Second only to the Key Marco Cat in terms of famous objects from the site, the deer figurehead was likely created by a Calusa or Muspa artist for use in masked religious processions. |
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Tortoise Shell Net Gauge (On display June 2021 through April 30th 2024)Image courtesy of Penn Museum (image #298887)A beautifully carved tortoise shell net gauge used by the Calusa for fishing depicts Southwest Florida’s Bottlenose Dolphins. |
The MIHS has mounted the exhibit in collaboration with Collier County Museums, the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
The loaned artifacts are featured within the Museum’s award-winning permanent exhibit — Paradise Found: 6,000 Years of People on Marco Island — that includes interactive activity stations, state-of-the-art projections and animations, original artwork depicting the Cushing expedition and the daily activities and ceremonies of the Calusa and their ancestors as well as an immersive life-size Calusa Village.
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| Exhibit Photographs courtesy of Vandy Major | ||
“This exhibition is the culmination of a long-term vision to bring these incredibly important artifacts to Marco Island on loan in order to educate and inspire people of all ages about the fascinating history of our region,” says MIHS Curator of Collections Austin Bell. “It has taken years of planning and discussions with the lending institutions and the continuation of a public-private partnership that includes the Marco Island Historical Society, Collier County and the community.”
Artwork by Merald Clark |
Cushing’s 1896 Key Marco excavation produced some of the greatest discoveries in the history of North American archaeology. Because the artifacts were buried in an oxygen-free layer of muck, these rare wooden objects — between 500 and 1,500 years old — were astonishingly well preserved. |
Since their discovery by Cushing, the returning Key Marco artifacts have been preserved by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History and University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Others are at the National Museum of the American Indian, the Florida Museum of Natural History, and the British Museum.
