MARCO’S HISTORY GIVES BIRTH TO ART
Cushing’s expedition had its start when Captain Bill Collier, the early island settler who established the Olde Marco Inn, was digging in the muck for fertilizer. He uncovered some objects that he thought might be Indian artifacts.
“There happened to be a man—Colonel Darford from the British Museum—in Naples at the time,” reports Betsy Perdichizzi, project director for the Marco Island Historical Society’s Art Interprets History grants. “He came over by boat to have a look. On his way back to London, he stopped at the University of Pennsylvania and showed the artifacts to Dr. (William) Pepper of the university’s museum.”
At the time, Cushing, who had a great interest in Indian artifacts and history, was a patient of Pepper’s. The objects enthralled him, and the two men decided it would be worth his exploring the site. Pepper fi nanced a trip for Cushing in 1895. What he found convinced both men that a full exploration should be undertaken. With fi nancial support from Mrs. Phoebe Hearst, Pepper and the Smithsonian, Cushing returned to Marco in 1896 with a full team.
The expedition recovered more than 1,000 wooden artifacts, along with other objects made from bone, fi ber, stone, shell and rawhide. The items included bowls, mortars and pestles, spears, ropes, nets, fish hooks, such carved animals as the Key Marco Cat and painted masks.
Sawyer described the fi nd in a letter he wrote to his 16-year-old fi ancée, Kathleen Bailey:
“We have seen many curious things and have developed a good deal of an old village of the pre-Columbian time where we have found really wonderful things. The hairpins are very pretty, being of bone and fi nely wrought. The whole key was built by ancient people, it has channels leading into its interior where the boats used to run in and out and around the lagoons with which they connected the people who once lived here. I am very glad to have seen this place; it is a new development in American archaeology and one which can not fail to impress all time with its importance.”
Sawyer included sketches in his letter, but it was the photographs and watercolor paintings he made of artifacts as they came out of the ground that ultimately held the most value. The muck pond had preserved the objects while they were underground, but as soon as they were removed from the muck, many started to disintegrate. The colors on painted objects also faded rapidly.
“Cushing died before he was able to divide the collection,” Perdichizzi reports. “One of his workers subsequently accused Cushing of salting artifacts at the site. That cast a pall on the collection for years.”
Marian Gilliland of the University of Florida eventually unpacked the barrels of artifacts and was astounded by what she found. She collected Sawyers’ letters, photos and paintings and started interviewing people. Her work ultimately led to the collection’s verifi cation and helped establish its importance. Sawyer’s photographic and artistic record proved invaluable. Sawyer, meanwhile, went on to become an artist of some renown.
Fast forward now to 2008, when the Marco Island Historical Society again turned to artists to record the island’s history. A cooperative venture called the Art Interprets History project offered lectures and tours of historical sites and, this month, is presenting a month-long exhibition of paintings in cooperation with the Art League of Marco Island. Fittingly, the inspiration for the project came from a noted local artist who has long worked to preserve the area’s history.
“I met with Paul Arsenault, and he started showing me paintings of early Marco he had done in the 1970s,” Perdichizzi explains. “Whenever he heard that things were to be demolished, he would come to paint them. He let me borrow fi ve of his paintings. I showed them to the board and others in the community. That’s when the idea was born. When we were searching for a logo, my husband said, ‘Why not use the picture of Wells Sawyer painting on Marco in 1896?’ It seemed right.”
A distinguished panel of art experts selected the fi ve participating artists: Arsenault, Jonathan Green, Robert Gruppé, Rachel Kennedy and Stephen Muldoon. Meanwhile, the historical society selected four sites to be artistically rendered: Horr’s Island (Key Marco); Goodland; the naval battle at Marco Pass and Caxambas; and Old Marco and its Calusa Indians.
“The artists painted what appealed to them,” Perdichizzi says. “We provided them with old photos. They went to the sites and met with the experts. What they painted is the exciting part. That’s the creative side.”
Along with the artistry, the project also included public lectures by various historical experts and fi eld trips to the sites. In November, archaeologist Mike Russo provided insight into the Archaic Indians who lived on Horr’s Island. Archaeologist Robert Carr did the same for the history of Goodland in December. In January, maritime historian and author Robert Macomber discussed the Civil War battle at Marco Pass and David Southall of the Collier County Museum added to the history during a tour of Otter Mound Preserve. The fi nal lecture/tour in February featured archaeologist William Marquardt and a discussion of the Calusa.
“We’ve also been working with Linda Cummings, the fi ne arts coordinator for Collier County Public Schools,” Perdichizzi reports. “The artists have volunteered to go into the schools and/or lead field trips and to talk about history and art working together.”
The Art Interprets History project concludes in March with a month-long exhibition of the artists’ paintings at the Art League of Marco Island. There are also plans to take the exhibition to the Naples Depot.
“Our main goal is to raise public awareness of the uniqueness of Marco,” Perdichizzi says. “The Calusa is the least known tribe. They left no written history. What we know is from archives in Spain and Cuba and from archaeologists. Marco is also unique in the fact that it had early villages and functioning clam canneries.”
Ultimately, the historical society hopes to spark enough enthusiasm for the history of Marco to build a museum on the island. The Collier County Commissioners have agreed to provide land for the museum near the library—if the society can raise the money for the building. So far, nearly $2 million of the needed $4.5 million has been pledged.
“The society was instrumental in bringing the Key Marco Cat here in 1995 and 2000,” Perdichizzi reports. “We would like to build an accredited museum and get the cat here on a permanent loan. Right now, it’s in a drawer (at the Smithsonian), where very few people can see it.”
Bringing the cat back to where Cushing fi rst found it and Sawyer photographed it seems the proper closing of a circle. By joining with today’s artists for Art Interprets History, the Marco Island Historical Society just may have found the means to get that process underway.
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