Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #worldelephantday

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Do you know the story of the first elephant to arrive in America? It’s a rather remarkable tale. Gather ‘round for a #WorldElephantDay story… An elephant at the Oakland Zoo peeks out from behind a tree.
In 1796, a ship captain named Jacob Crowninshield went to go pick up a merchant vessel, called America, for a commercial fleet owner in Boston. But there was no sense in bringing home an empty ship. So Jacob stopped in Calcutta. That’s where he saw an elephant—and hatched a plan. A black and white portrait of Jacob Crowninshield, wearing a peacoat and holding a ledger. There is a ship in the background.
Jacob Crowninshield asked his brother Ben to invest in his plan. When Ben declined, he wrote to his other brothers. “I suppose you will laugh at this scheme,” Jacob wrote, “but I do not mind… of course you know it will be a great thing to carry the first elephant to America.”
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