Jumbo the Elephant - Medford, MA - Animal Memorials on Waymarking.com

Jumbo the Elephant was born in 1861 in the French Sudan (now Mali) and placed on exhibit at the Paris Zoo. In 1865 he was transferred to the London Zoo and subsequently bought by P. T. Barnum, in 1881, where he became a featured attraction in the Barnum and Bailey Circus.

Jumbo met an untimely death on September 15, 1885, when he was hit by a locomotive while the traveling circus was loading onto trains in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada. After his death Jumbo's body parts were subdivided. His skeleton was sent to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The heart went to Cornell University and his hide was stuffed, mounted and put on display with the circus. In 1889, Barnum donated Jumbo to Tufts University, where he was a benefactor and trustee. The elephant soon became the school mascot. In fact the school sports teams are to this day called the Jumbos. Jumbo was on display until it was destroyed in a fire in 1975. His ashes are kept in a 14 oz Peter Pan Crunch Peanut Butter jar kept in the athletic office. A statue in memory of Jumbo, is located in the center of the campus near the Barnum Hall.

Type of Memorial: statue Type of Animal: service, work animal

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Date Logged Log User Rating   09/21/2018 Duodenfer_ visited it