Little Bett
12 October 2014 -- 285/365
Chepachet, Rhode Island
One of the surviving Hasbro Mister Potato Head statues sits in the historical village of Chepachet. This is Betty, the Learned Elephant. The statue commemorates a shameful event from the early 19th century. In 1826, Hachaliah Bailey brought a large Indian elephant named Little Betty to the northeastern US. Betty was only the 2nd elephant ever to set foot in North America. (The first, also owned by Bailey, was killed in 1816 in Alfred, Maine by a farmer upset with the touring company crossing his land.) On the night of May 24, 1826, Little Bett had put on a performance in Chepachet, and after the show she was being walked across a wooden bridge leading out of town. A series of musket shots rang out from the grist mill on one side of the bridge, and the elephant was killed. Seven men were held responsible for the shooting. Today, a plaque marks the spot on the bridge where Little Bet was killed, and a stone marker was erected in her honor in the local cemetery.
Post processing started with a classic filter in Topaz B&W FX. I adjusted color sensitivity sliders, adaptive exposure, regions, contrast, boost black, boost white, and protect highlights. A levels adjustment was added in PSE.
@cejaanderson I suspect there's more to the story than is available today. Both elephants were shot by folks claiming religious motives. I'm not familiar enough with the practices in early 19th century New England (although the Puritanical influence still ran extremely heavy here in that period.) It may have been the concept of the circus itself that drew the anger, with the elephant (in both cases) just being the easiest targets.
This is a great shot Ron but such a sad tale! To think that people have to stoop so low as to take their anger and hatred out on the poor innocent elephants is such a shame in itself. x
October 13th, 2014
Leave a Comment
Sign up for a free account or Sign in to post a comment.
