Old Bet, (sculpture).

Old Bet, (sculpture).

Vaghi, Joseph P., sculptor.

Barlow, Thaddeus, sculptor.

Old Bet, (sculpture).

Sculpture: concrete over plywood and cedar with metal mesh; Scroll: iron; Shaft: granite.

Sculpture: approx. H. 3 ft. x W. 4 1/2 ft. x Diam. 6 1/2 ft.; Granite shaft: approx. H. 15 ft.; Iron scroll: approx. H. 3 ft.

A small elephant is mounted atop an iron scroll that rests atop a tall granite shaft.

Animal -- Portrait -- Old Bet

Animal -- Elephant

Outdoor Sculpture -- New York -- Somers

Administered by Village of Somers, Village Hall, Somers, New York

Located Village Hall, Route 202 & Route 100, Somers, New York

Somers, New York, known as the birthplace of the American circus, was home to Old Bet, an elephant owned and exhibited by Hachaliah Bailey. On July 24, 1816, Old Bet was shot and killed while on tour near Alfred, Maine. In 1827, Hachaliah Bailey commissioned a sculptor to create a depiction of Old Bet for the Elephant Hotel that he built in 1825 in Somers. The current sculpture, installed in front of the former Elephant Hotel (now the Village Hall), is the third version of the Old Bet sculpture. The original creator is not known, nor is the creator of the second version. In 1935, when the second version of the Old Bet sculpture began to crumble, the pieces were taken to a Bethel, New York cabinetmaker, Joseph P. Vaghi, who fashioned a new sculpture and enclosed the pieces of the previous version inside his new sculpture. Also sealed inside the new elephant were the names of all those in the Vaghi cabinet shop who worked on new version of "Old Bet." The iron scroll made by Thaddeus Barlow in 1827 is the original base.

Additional information is available at the Somers Historical Society and in the historical society's Aug. 1989 publication, "Somers, Its People and Places, 1788-1988."

Save Outdoor Sculpture, New York survey, 1993.

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

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