About the 'Persist' video:
On a dreary January morning in 1903, a crowd estimated at some 1,500 gathered in the off-season quiet of Coney Island, in the yet-unfinished environs of Luna Park, to witness what The New York Times termed "a rather inglorious affair."

Topsy, a six-ton, 10-foot-high female Indian elephant had recently developed a bad temper, and had killed three men in as many years. They had all in one way or another abused her. Fredrick Thompson, co-owner of Luna Park and consummate showman, decided that Topsy had to be put to sleep and advertised the event. Over 1,000 people filled a Luna Park arena to watch Topsy be fed cyanide-laced carrots. The carrots had no effect. So Thompson announced that man-killer Topsy would be publicly hanged for her crimes. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals protested: Hanging was a cruel and inhuman punishment. New York had recently abandoned the gallows for the electric chair, so Thompson made plans for an electrocution. In stepped Thomas Edison. Topsy offered an opportunity that Edison couldn’t resist.

On Jan. 5, 1903, 1500 people, gathered to see her be put down. At 2:45pm the current was activated. For 10 seconds 6,600 volts coursed through Topsy’s body. "The big beast died without a trumpet or a groan", The Commercial Advertiser noted. The New York Times added: "There had been no sound and hardly a conscious movement of the body". The elephant convulsed and dropped over, withering, dead. Thompson preserved part of Topsy’s hide for an office chair. Edison’s film of the event "Electrocuting an Elephant" was seen by audiences through out the United States.