Jumbo

Jumbo died at a railroad classification yard in St. Thomas, Ontario, where he was crushed by a locomotive. Barnum afterwards told the story that Jumbo died saving a young circus elephant, Tom Thumb, from being hit by the locomotive, but other witnesses did not support this.

Many metallic objects were found in the elephant's stomach, including pennies, nickels, dimes, keys, and rivets.

Jumbo's skeleton was donated to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The elephant's heart was sold to Cornell University. Jumbo's hide was stuffed by William J. Critchley and Carl Akeley, both of Ward's Natural Science, and the mounted specimen traveled with Barnum's circus for a number of years. In 1889, Barnum donated the stuffed Jumbo to Tufts University, where it was displayed until destroyed by a fire in 1975, coincidentally a fate that befell many of Barnum's exhibits during his own lifetime.

The great elephant's ashes are kept in a 14-ounce Peter Pan Crunchy Peanut Butter jar in the office of the Tufts athletic director, while his taxidermied tail, removed during earlier renovations, resides in the holdings of the Tufts Digital Collections and Archives. A statue of an elephant, dubbed "Jumbo", was purchased from an amusement park and placed on the Tufts campus after the fire. Jumbo became the university's mascot, and remains such to this day.

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People & Blogs

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• bob barkerJumbo
• Elephant

[tomoperation]

saw you vlog yesterday and just now. i cannot believe how much snow you got

and brianne said you had heat now. cannot believe it broke down all ready.

just got home and need to rest a bit. will call you in a little while.

love you

[tomoperation]

hi tom saw your video last night with eileen and i am look at it again

it sure is a lot of snow. brianne gave us the message that you are ok now.

hope you liked with cathy sent you. will give you a call in a little while.

just got home and i am tired.

[tomoperation]

Hi Bro. Mom and I just checked it out. Lots of snow there, none here. Glad to hear you have heat!

[Gonnabe007]

Sad but true :/ It's aweful to be famous for something so tragic! Anyway, I hope the beer that commemorates him is at least good enough to be worthy of his huge fame! Let me know :) Oh...and you can KEEP the snow!!