Key Marco Cat Gets Loan Extension from Smithsonian

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 a while 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. 

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.

“The Key Marco Cat from the Smithsonian collections is an extraordinary object that attests to the unique archaeological record of Key Marco and the people and cultures who lived there for millennia,” notes Torben Rick, Chairman of the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. 

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 Sixteenth Century. Since their discovery, the returning Key Marco artifacts have been preserved by the Smithsonian and University of Pennsylvania. 

A ceremonial mask, alligator figurehead, painted human figure and sea turtle figurehead discovered by the expedition are on exhibit at MIHM through May 2021. These objects are on loan from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (PENN Museum). 

Starting in June 2021 through April 30, 2024, 16 additional Key Marco artifacts from the PENN Museum will be on exhibit at MIHM. The newly loaned objects include a beautifully carved tortoise shell net gauge depicting Bottlenose Dolphins; a shell gorget or throat piece; a wooden human figurine, knife handle thought to have been carved from an antler, and various utilitarian objects. Three of the artifacts — a wolf figurehead, pelican figurehead and deer figurehead — will be loaned on a rotating basis because the fragility of these objects requires limiting the time they can be on exhibit. The wolf figurehead will be the first of the rotating artifacts to be on exhibit from June 2021 to June 2022.

Meg Kassabaum, assistant curator for North America at the PENN Museum, states that the Key Marco artifacts demonstrate the remarkable preservation of the organic materials from Key Marco. “Usually, these materials do not preserve on ancient sites, so the Key Marco materials show us what we're missing from most other archaeological contexts. These particular artifacts are prime examples of the complex iconography used by pre-Columbian Floridians and probably had deep ritual significance to the people who created them. The fact that they have survived so long is truly incredible and provides a nearly unique window into the past.” 

The Key Marco artifacts are showcased at the Marco Island Historical Museum in the award-winning permanent exhibit Paradise Found: 6,000 Years of People on Marco Island. The exhibit features an immersive life-size Calusa village, more than 300 pre-Columbian Native American artifacts from Marco Island and surrounding areas, activity stations, animations, and original artwork depicting the 1896 archaeological dig and lives and ceremonies of the Calusa. MIHS also commissioned Emmy and Peabody Award-winning composer Kat Epple to create a Calusa-inspired soundtrack for the exhibit. 

“The Key Marco Artifacts exhibit is the culmination of a 25-year vision on the part of the Marco Island Historical Society to bring these incredibly important artifacts back to Marco Island 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.”

Marco Island Historical Society Executive Director, Pat Rutledge, notes that the return of the Key Marco Artifacts is a history-making community wide achievement. “To prepare to bring back the Key Marco Cat, the Marco Island Historical Society raised the funds to build a museum worthy of it,” she says. “Our members and supporters throughout the community joined with us with passion and financial support to bring the Key Marco Cat home. Its successful return and the Smithsonian’s unprecedented five-year loan extension clearly demonstrate the important role of the Marco Island Historical Society in preserving and presenting the important and fascinating history of our area. The timing of this achievement could not be better as the Marco Island Historical Society launches our first endowment campaign to ensure that we can continue to keep Marco Island’s history alive for current and future generations.”

The Marco Island Historical Museum is located at 180 S. Heathwood Drive, Marco Island, Florida, and open Tuesday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free. Handicapped accessible. For information, call 239.389.6447 or visit www.theMIHS.org.