Anniversary celebration: New exhibit at Marco Island Historical Museum

The Marco Island Historical Society (MIHS) donor preview for the Picture Perfect: Marco Island in Postcards exhibit Oct. 12 also included a salute to the museum’s 10th anniversary.

The exhibit is at the Marco Island Historical Museum and open to the public through Jan. 22. It features more than 60 original postcards from the MIHS collection that span more than 100 years.

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The Marco Island Historical Museum opened full time in 2011. In the museum’s first 10 years, working in collaboration with Collier County, MIHS opened the new 8,100-square-foot museum.

Professional staff was hired to curate and direct projects. Four permanent, award-winning exhibits were developed and opened, and the MIHM campus that includes the Rose History Auditorium was completed.

Today, MIHS hosts dozens of programs, events and exhibits, and welcomes more than 20,000 visitors annually. The museum has been named a 2021 TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice Award winner and recognized by TripAdvisor among the top 10 percent of attractions worldwide.

MIHM is firmly established as a cornerstone of the Marco Island community and as a must-see destination for Southwest Florida residents and visitors. In 2018, the world-famous Key Marco Cat was returned to MIHM on loan from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History and reunited — for the first time in over 100 years — with other Key Marco artifacts on loan from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

The Marco Island Historical Museum is located at 180 S. Heathwood Drive. The Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free, and the site is handicapped accessible. For general information visit themihs.org or call 239-642-1440.

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