(Circus Broadside) | A rare broadside advertising the first elephant in America

(Circus Broadside)

The Elephant. Newburyport: [Printed by William Barrett], Sept. 19, 1797 

Printed broadside (264 x 216 mm). Large woodcut of elephant at top, letterpress text; browned, some losses along old horizontal folds and margins, costing 3 or so words, expertly restored with renewed margins. Matted, framed, and glazed with Plexiglas. 

"The most respectable Animal in the World"

Transported from India, the famed elephant arrived in New York on 13 April 1797, aboard a ship captained by Jacob Crowninshield. Born in Salem in 1770, as a young man Crowninshield went into partnership with three of his brothers, ultimately commanding trade ships between the United States and India. He was later elected a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts. In addition to his political savvy, Crowninshield was a keen businessman. After having purchased the elephant for $450, he sold it to a Welshman for $10,000. As the elephant was exhibited up and down the eastern seaboard for a number of years, it's likely that, despite its eyewatering price tag, the animal generated significant profits for the Welshman.

The broadside describes the elephant as four years old, and weighing roughly 3,000 pounds, "but will not have come to his full Growth till he shall be between 30 and 40 Years old." The advertisement goes on to note that he "eats 130 Weight a Day, and drinks all Kinds of spiritous Liquors; some Days he has drank 30 Bottles of Porter, drawing the Corks with his Trunk." And while he apparently never attempted to hurt anyone, spectators were issued the following warning: "The Elephant having destroyed many papers of Consequence, it is recommended to Visitors not to come near him with such papers." While the elephant was consistently described as male, after seeing the creature in Salem on 29 August 1779, the Reverend William Bentley observed that he was, in fact, a she.

A rare broadside heralding the first elephant to be exhibited in the United States, ESTC cites only one institutional copy at the New-York Historical Society, and we can trace no other copies at auction. A similar broadside from a Providence, Rhode Island imprint sold as part of The Ricky Jay Collection in 2021 for $30,240.

REFERENCE:

ESTC W27216; Evans 32077; cf. Ricky Jay. Extraordinary Exhibitions, pp. 56-57