In The Nine Lives of Florida’s Famous Key Marco Cat, Austin Bell provides us with an engaging and detailed object biography of one of the most iconic artifacts from pre-Columbian North America. This volume is filled with fascinating details of the life history of this small wooden icon, and the amazing expedition which retrieved it from a remote Florida island. Bell takes the reader along a narrative ride that begins before the cat is carved by an Indigenous artist and concludes with the display of the object in the Marco Island Historical Museum in the present day. Speaking to public historians, museum professionals, public archaeologists, and especially the general reader interested in the story of how artifacts become museum art objects, The Nine Lives is written in easily accessible and concise prose. Bell is the world’s expert on the cat and has produced a volume that is sure to...

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