Crowninshield's elephant

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The Elephant . Notice sheet for the first elephant on American soil. Printed in Boston August 18, 1797

Crowninshield's elephant (born around 1793, probably died on July 31, 1822 near Chepachet, Rhode Island ) was the first elephant on American soil. The cow elephant belonged to Jacob Crowninshield of Salem and came to New York in 1796 . The animal was not given a proper name because it was the only one of its kind in the New World until then . It was listed as The Elephant through the North American states.

Animal life

July 22, 1796: Announcement for Frankford (borough of Philadelphia) with admission prices

The approximately three-year-old elephant reached New York Harbor on April 13, 1796 by ship. The America had left Calcutta on December 3, 1795 under Captain Jacob Crowninshield . Crowninshield had acquired the elephant in Bengal . The animal was immediately presented to the public in New York and then exhibited in Philadelphia and Baltimore that same year .

The entrance fees were initially very high at half a dollar for adults and a quarter for children. The following year, 1797, the animal was shown in Salem and then brought to the southern states .

In 1798 the female elephant came back to Philadelphia by ship and, according to a report, changed hands there. The date of sale is unknown. The menagerie owner Savage is said to have bought the elephant for the high sum of $ 10,000 and is said to have demonstrated it mainly on the west coast. Again in Boston and Salem an elephant has been recorded for the year 1804. Whether this was Crowninshield's animal is not entirely clear; with the female elephant named Old Bet , who was identified with him in some texts, a second elephant could also have been brought to American soil. "If there is no confusion," the Bengali elephant died on July 31, 1822 near Chepachet, Rhode Island.

Sources

Further details of the voyage can be found in the posthumous letters of the captain of the America and in their surviving logbook . In a letter dated November 2, 1795, Jacob Crowninshield had written to his brothers George and John, who were on their way to India with the Belisarius :

We're taking home a fine, young elephant, two years old, that cost $ 450. He's about the size of a very large ox, and I think I can say we'll get him home safely. [...] I suppose you will laugh at my plan; but that doesn't bother me; I will be an elephant driver [...]; of course you can imagine that bringing the first elephant to America is a great thing.

From America's Logbook , 1796

The logbook on the trip from Calcutta to New York was kept by First Officer Nathaniel Hathorne, whose son Nathaniel later added a "w" to his name and became a writer. At first he did not mention the elephant, but only on February 17, 1796, when the America anchored off St. Helena . He noted Elephant on board in large letters and wrote:

The day began with a gentle breeze [...] Later we were busy putting out 23 sacks of coffee [and] taking pumpkins, cabbage and fresh fish for the galley, as well as greens for the elephant on board.

Newspaper reports have come down to us. A New York newspaper wrote about the ship's arrival:

The ship 'America', with Captain Jacob Crowninshield from Salem, Massachusetts, commander and owner, has brought home an elephant from Bengal in perfect health. It's the first ever seen in America and a great curiosity. It is a female, two years old.

The Aurora , Philadelphia newspaper reported on July 28, 1796:

(The elephant) has just arrived from New York, in this city, on his way to Charleston ... He possesses the Adroitness of the Beaver. the Intelligence of the Ape, and the Fidelity of the Dog. He is the largest among quadrupeds; the earth trembles, under his feet: ... he has the power of tearing up the largest trees, and yet is tractable to those who use him well ... This Elephant now offered for public exhibition is about three years old, near six feet high. He is of the largest species, growing to the height of sixteen feet ... He was purchased in New York for Ten Thousand Dollars.

literature

  • George G. Goodwin: The Crowninshield Elephant. The surprising story of Old Bet, the first Elephant ever to be brought to America. In: Natural History. October 1950, pp. 357–559, p. 385 (with ills., Online )
  • Stephan Oettermann : The elephant curiosity. An Elephantographia Curiosa. Frankfurt am Main 1982, pp. 149-151.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For the sake of completeness, it should be added at this point that this statement only refers to the recent elephant species, and disregards the mammoths , which were also widespread in North America but were completely extinct in prehistoric times and which are also elephants in the zoological sense, because they are culturally and historically negligible.
  2. ^ Vernon N. Kisling: Zoo and Aquarium history. Ancient Animal Collections To Zoological Gardens. CRC Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8493-2100-X , p. 148 f.
  3. ↑ Oettermann (1982) p. 150.
  4. ↑ Oettermann (1982) p. 151
  5. ↑ Oettermann (1982) p. 151.
  6. ↑ Oettermann (1982) p. 151. Confusion is probably given with a circus animal that became known as Old Bet and probably died in 1816 (see the doubts in Goodwin 1950 and Oettermann 1982). Another elephant named Betsy or Betty The Learned Elephant is meanwhile also haunted by the Internet, allegedly also died in Chepachet in 1826 and even given a day of remembrance there ( example ).
  7. ↑ Quoted in Goodwin (1950); Translation according to Oettermann (1982), p. 150.
  8. ↑ Quoted in Goodwin (1950), with illustration; Translation according to Oettermann (1982) p. 150.
  9. ↑ Quoted in Goodwin (1950); Translation according to Oettermann (1982) p. 150.
  10. ↑ Translation: (The elephant) has just arrived in this city from New York on his way to Charleston ... He has the dexterity of the beaver, the intelligence of the monkey and the loyalty of the dog. He is the largest of the four-legged friends; the earth trembles under his feet: ... he has the strength to pull up the biggest trees, and yet he is to be directed by those who treat him well ... This elephant, which is now on display in the public exhibition, is about three years old, nearly six feet tall. It is one of the largest species, up to sixteen feet tall ... It was bought in New York for ten thousand dollars. (online) . Quoted in: First Elephant in America. In: Notes & Queries. Ser. June 4, 1909; quoted from Oettermann (1982) p. 150 with source note 287.