Meet Hattie and Jewel, a pachyderm pair who made their home in what was known as the elephant enclosure at the Central Park Zoo.
This 1906 postcard reveals what a huge draw they were—thousands of people visted every week to watch them. But it also shows them with chains attached to their legs, a very sad sight.
Jewel was the moody one, arriving at the zoo in 1878 from the Barnum & Bailey Circus. She tried to kill a keeper, hurling him out of her enclosure with her trunk, according to a The New York Times article.
Hattie was young and plucky. In a story about her death in 1922 (keepers weren’t sure of her age) the Times wrote:
“She became angry on another occasion at a man who tossed a lighted cigarette against her trunk. The man got away. Years afterward he came back. Hattie squinted at him through her little eyes, filled her trunk with muddy ooze and squirted it all over him.”
Jewel outlived Hattie and died in 1928 at 97. Another Times article reported that after a zoo veterinarian found her paralyzed in her enclosure, he shot her three times in the head, ending her life.
Tags: Barnum & Bailey elephants, Central Park Zoo, elephant enclosure Central Park, elephants in New York City, zoo animals Central Park
Ephemeral New York 
February 23, 2009 at 2:50 am |
[…] The park also offered goat carriage rides on the Mall. And elephants. […]
June 2, 2010 at 4:11 am |
[…] have a long history entertaining New Yorkers. Read more about it here and […]
March 17, 2012 at 5:22 pm |
Are there any elephants in the zoo at this time?
March 17, 2012 at 5:50 pm |
Not in Central Park
January 28, 2013 at 3:28 am |
[…] who helped build Central Park and was inspired by the real-life animals at the Central Park Zoo (then called the Menagerie) was an animalier, and his jaguars, lions, and other cats are on display […]
February 11, 2013 at 7:49 am |
[…] than 100 years later, zoo officials decided to follow the Central Park Zoo and Prospect Park Zoo and phase out their elephant […]
March 24, 2013 at 2:42 pm |
An Elephant in Central Park Zoo was known for it’s pranks. Eating peoples pocketbooks among other things. It died in the 1980’s when it was brought to another location. What was the name of this Elephant?
June 16, 2014 at 1:05 pm |
[…] Image via Ephemeral New York […]
August 24, 2015 at 6:14 am |
[…] Elephants, monkeys, sea lions, camels, bison—in the early 1900s, the Central Park Menagerie, as it was known, was home to all. […]
July 27, 2020 at 6:23 pm |
[…] Elephants were similarly popular during the early years of the zoo, with their enclosure drawing a constant stream of visitors. Hattie, one of the zoo’s two beloved elephants, was noted to have pulled a snowplow following blizzards while she lived in the park from 1903 until her death in 1922. […]