Join us in welcoming Austin Bell, the Chief Curator at the Museum of Florida  History for his presentation, “The Nine Lives of Florida’s Famous Key Marco Cat.” SAAA lectures are free and open to the public!

Excavated from a waterlogged archaeological site on the shores of subtropical Florida by legendary anthropologist Frank Hamilton Cushing in 1896, the Key

Marco Cat has become an icon of Florida’s history and heritage. The Nine Lives of Florida’s Famous Key Marco Cat, winner of a 2021 Florida Book Award in the Florida Nonfiction category, explores nine periods in the life of the small wooden carving, including how and why it was sculpted by its Calusa creators, its route to the Smithsonian, and its modern-day role as a coveted ambassador of Florida’s past.

Austin Bell is the Chief Curator at the Museum of Florida History in Tallahassee. He is the author four books, including The Nine Lives of Florida’s Famous Key Marco Cat, published through the University Press of Florida. He is also the former Curator of Collections for the Marco Island Historical Society, where in 2018 he helped orchestrate a loan of the Key Marco Cat that remains active. Austin holds degrees in Museum Studies (M.A.) and Anthropology (B.A.) from the University of Florida.