The Big Attraction: The Circus Elephant and American Culture

A little over two centuries ago, when the first elephant was brought to America, it was received with awe and excitement. The public quickly developed admiration for the beast, which prompted men of means to import more. The reason for such keen human interest in the elephant has been ascribed by Richard Carrington to "the size, strength and freakish appearance" of the beast. In 1951, the British circus historian Anthony Hippisley Coxe wrote of American circus history, "Americans, with their inherent desire to possess the biggest of everything, were showing an almost idolatrous respect for the elephant. They even went so far as to judge the importance of a circus by the number of these animals instead of the number of horses in the show" (29). Hippisley Coxe's incredulity that Americans would so crudely discount the importance of the horse led him to conclude the American desire to own and see elephants was based in an obsession with size. This is an overly simplistic view of both the elephant and American culture. It is irrefutable that elephants in the eighteenth and nineteenth century were promoted on the premise that each menagerie and circus owned "the largest elephant in the world," but the elephant has always had both a greater significance and deeper meaning in American culture than mere bulk could engender. It was because of its unique combination of size, unusual appearance, and intelligence that the elephant contributed to the development of the American circus; without elephants in circus history, the American circus would look quite different today. Even though the elephant is not indigenous to American soil, it has been in America serving as an entertainment, an educational exhibit, and a patriotic symbol for nearly as long as America has been an independent nation. The American circus is a direct descendant of the British circus of the mid-eighteenth century. Because the British circus grew out of the military equestrian tradition, the horse was its defining animal; in the beginning, it was the American circus's as well. In order to understand the shift in focus from the horse to the elephant, we must first examine the roots of the American circus. British Precursors to the American Circus During the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, the French observed that British soldiers were forever jumping, prancing, and making showy moves that at most entertained the tactically superior French forces: "Your horses," said a French cavalry commander, General Excelmann, to a British officer, "are the finest in the world and your men ride better than any continental soldier. With such material the English cavalry ought to have done more.... The great deficiency is in your officers who seem to be impressed by the conviction that they can dash or ride over everything, as if the art of war were precisely the same as the art of foxhunting." (Trench 159-60) The British were also noted for their fondness for speed and their ability to ride at potentially breakneck pace. It seems that the British riding style was, ultimately, more suited to the performing ring of the equestrian show than to the demands of battle. In 1768, Philip Astley, a British ex-cavalry man and bona fide war hero (he had once leapt on horseback to capture the French colors in battle) began to work with two horses in a field near Lambeth, along with two fifers for musical accompaniment and his wife, whose duty it was to beat the drum and pass the hat. There he performed acts of voltige and trick riding in a ring, the centrifugal force of the circle aiding him in keeping his balance. In 1770, he opened the new British Riding School, where "the seats around the ring were all covered with a pent roof, while toward the road, a twostory wooden structure served as an entrance." By 1780, Astley identified his entertainment business as a circus. Astley's New Circus, on the outskirts of London near Westminster Bridge and Sadler's Wells, was entirely roofed over and contained tumbling, rope dancing, Chinese shadows, clowns, and "freaks. …