Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! This week, we’re talking about Boston’s first encounters with exotic animals. I will be talking about the very first lion to make an appearance in Boston, but instead of tigers and bears, we’ll take a look at Boston’s experiences with elephants and alligators. Our story will span almost 200 years, with the first lion being imported in the early 1700s, the first elephant in the late 1700s, and the first alligators that most Bostonians got acquainted with were installed in the Public Garden in 1901. Can you imagine proper late-Victorian Bostonians crowding around a pool of alligators to watch them tear live animals limb from limb? I couldn’t either before digging into this week’s episode.

Full show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/318/

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Beastly Boston

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Image from the handbill advertising the first elephant in 1796
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A newspaper ad to see the elephant
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Sally Gool Putnam’s sketch of elephants in 1860
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Alligators at the Public Garden in 1901
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• “The Last Voyage of the Province Galley,” by Robert E. Moody read at the April 1934 meeting of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts


• HARDESTY, JARED ROSS. “‘The Negro at the Gate’: Enslaved Labor in Eighteenth-Century Boston.” The New England Quarterly, vol. 87, no. 1, 2014


• “The Crowninshield Elephant: The surprising story of Old Bet, the first elephant ever to be brought to America,” by George G. Goodwin


• Goodwin, G. G. “The First Living Elephant in America.” Journal of Mammalogy, vol. 6, no. 4, 1925


• Sally Gool Putnam sees elephants at the Aquarial Gardens


• Park, Lawrence, 1873-1924. Major Thomas Savage of Boston And His Descendants. Boston: Press of D. Clapp & Son, 1914


• “The People in the Pews: Capt. Arthur Savage,” by Mark Hurwitz


• The diary of William Bentley, D.D., pastor of the East Church, Salem, Massachusetts, volume 2


• Vail, RWG, “Random Notes on the History of the Early American Circus,” Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, April 1933


• Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 6, April 13, 1836


• Paywalled newspapers
  
  
  
  • The Recorder, Thu, May 19, 1796: First elephant arrives in NYC
  
  
  • The Recorder, Tue, Aug 06, 1816: Old Bet shot in Maine
  
  
  • The Vermont Journal, Mon, Aug 05, 1816: Old Bet shot in Maine
  
  
  • The Vermont Watchman, Tue, Aug 20, 1816: Old Bet’s killer identified
  
  
  • The New York Evening Post, Tue, May 29, 1804: Second elephant for sale
  
  
  • The Boston Globe, Sat, Oct 12, 1901: Gator roundup
  
  
  • Boston Post, Fri, Aug 09, 1901: vivid description of live gator feedings, complaints, header image
  
  
  • Boston Evening Transcript, Sat, Aug 10, 1901: Alligator care instructions
  
  
  • Boston Evening Transcript, Sat, Aug 03, 1901: Searching for alligators amongst the lillies
  
  
  • Boston Post, Thu, Sep 19, 1901: Gators to the Franklin Park greenhouse
  
  
  • Boston Post, Sat, Aug 10, 1901: No more live feedings
  
  
  • Boston Evening Transcript, Sat, Apr 13, 1901: “Freakish Legislation” to fund a zoo
  
  
  • Boston Evening Transcript, Wed, Oct 15, 1902: Where do the alligators, goldfish, and turtles go in winter
  
  
  • The Boston Globe, Fri, Jul 24, 1903: Winterizing the Public Garden
  
  
  • Boston Evening Transcript, Sat, Jun 17, 1905: Alligators moved to the other fountain
  
  
  
  


• Free access newspapers
  
  
  
  • Boston Guardian, Apr 9, 2021: gators in the Public Garden
  
  
  • The New Hampshire gazette, Dec 02, 1817: the elephant Columbus arrives in Boston
  
  
  • Portland gazette and Maine advertiser, May 27, 1817: Old Bet’s skeleton exhibited in NYC
  
  
  • The New Hampshire gazette, October 03, 1797: Ad for the elephant, using text from the handbill