JUMBO

See Also: CIRCUSES, DISAPPEARED; ELEPHANTS; TAXIDERMY; ZOOS London Zoo

A young, male African bush elephant was caught in Abyssinia in 1861. At the time, the animal is reputed to have then been 40in.-tall (1.02m.) at the shoulder. He was displayed at the Jardin des Plantes menagerie in Paris with another elephant called Alice. Matthew Scott, a keeper at London Zoo, visited the Jardin. He concluded that the two creatures were ill but that he might be able to cure them.

In 1865 the French zoo exchanged the pachyderms for one of London Zoo s rhinoceroses. The male's new keepers gave him the name Jumbo. This was probably derived from the Mande word dyumbo , which means pompom wearer . He responded to Mr Scott's care and began to thrive. He gave visitors to the zoo rides in a multi-seat howdah that was strapped onto his back for the purpose. This led to his name becoming known nationally.

The American circus proprietor P.T. Barnum approached London Zoo in 1882 with an offer to buy Jumbo for $10,000.¹ It is possible that the zoo was concerned about the way in which the pachyderm was becoming increasingly moody and would sometimes succumb to fits of rage while he was in the Elephant House. When the public learned of the sale, the news prompted tens of thousands of children to write to Queen Victoria to ask her to prevent it going through. The art critic John Ruskin was one of those people who opposed the deal. It was not cancelled.

Mr Scott continued to be Jumbo's keeper. It cost a further $20,000 to transport the elephant to New York. However, following the animal's arrival there, the $30,000 investment was recouped in just ten days. Jumbo toured North America with the Barnum & Bailey Circus. The showman claimed that the animal was 13ft.-tall (3.96m.). Jumbo-branded products became a craze. His name became synonymous with very large .

In 1885 Jumbo was killed in an accident that occurred in a railway marshalling yard in Ontario. Barnum had the elephant's 1538lb. hide stuffed. The result was a foot taller than Jumbo had been. The showman exhibited the model. In 1889 the Circus presented it to Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. Barnum had been a benefactor of the institution. The figure was displayed in its Barnum Museum of Natural History.

The elephant was adopted as the college mascot; the university's sports teams became known as the Tufts Jumbos. In 1975 the museum burned down. The taxidermied pachyderm's ashes were placed in a Peter Pan Crunchy Peanut Butter jar and are now cared for by the university's Department of Athletics. The varsity team members rub the vessel for luck before competing in events.

Location: London Zoo, The Regent's Park, NW1 4RY (orange, purple)

Website: www.tufts.edu/about/jumbo www.gotuftsjumbos.com/information/jumbo www.zsl.org/blogs/artefact-of-the-month/artefact-of-the-month-jumbos-story

https://barnum-museum.org/barnum-jumbo-dumbo

¹. Barnum is reputed to have coined the aphorism Every crowd has a silver lining .

David Backhouse 2024