An Elephant in Dublin: Animals and Knowledge in the Late Seventeenth Century

In June 1681, an elephant who had been brought to Dublin as an exotic animal exhibit died in a fire, after which his remains were dissected by Irish surgeon and anatomist Allan Mullen. This paper examines the Dublin elephant’s life and death. By focusing on this elephant, this paper adds to our understanding of the ways in which interactions between people and other-than-human animals have shaped the past. The Dublin elephant serves as an example of the important roles that other-than-human animals played in the making of natural knowledge. People interacted with him in various settings – while he was on display, during his dissection, and in the form of objects. These interactions resulted in the development of accurate and inaccurate knowledge about elephants, with the elephant himself being a key participant in this process of knowledge-making.