The first elephant arrived in the United States
On this day · 13 April 1796
A two-year-old Asian elephant from Bengal stepped onto a New York wharf on April 13, 1796, the first ever seen in America.
On April 13, 1796, a young Asian elephant was landed at a New York wharf, the first of her kind ever to set foot on American soil. Captain Jacob Crowninshield of Salem, Massachusetts, had carried her home from Bengal aboard his ship, fittingly named America, which had sailed from Calcutta the previous December.
Crowninshield had paid about $450 for the two-year-old female, gambling that a creature no American had seen would draw paying crowds. He was right. Within weeks she went on display near Beaver Street and Broadway, with onlookers charged a quarter to gawk.
One newspaper warned spectators not to approach her holding important papers, which she had a habit of destroying.
The bet paid off spectacularly: the elephant reportedly resold for around $10,000, and she toured the East Coast for years. Even George Washington recorded paying to see her.
Sources & references
2 referencesWell-established. Corroborated by 2 independent sources.
