Jumbo

Unlike many universities’ mascots, Tufts’ is a real animal, who in the late 19th century was the most famous animal in the world. Jumbo was captured as a calf along the Sudan-Eritrea border in 1862 specifically for the burgeoning zoo industry. At great risk to Jumbo’s health, he was transported to the London Zoo and arrived there in poor condition in 1865. Though his condition improved over time, Jumbo’s behavior as he entered adulthood became too unpredictable for zoo staff.

Seeking to resolve the situation and add a new attraction to his circus, Tufts trustee and benefactor P. T. Barnum offered to purchase Jumbo from the zoo in 1881. Both Jumbo and the London public expressed resistance to the sale, and it took months to coerce Jumbo into boarding a ship bound for the United States.

Once the elephant arrived, Barnum, who was no stranger to exploiting people and animals for popular entertainment, immediately set to work in making Jumbo a household name. He donated the “mounted skin” of Jumbo to Tufts College in 1889, four years after Jumbo was killed by a train in Ontario, Canada. He had already planned to donate the skeleton to the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Destined for the Barnum Museum of Natural History, which had opened on the Tufts campus in 1884, Jumbo’s hide was exhibited there even after the museum closed in the 1930s.

When the university commissioned sculptor Stephen Whyte to create a new, life-size Jumbo monument for the Quad, it was based on a small carte-de-visite photograph from the London Zoo, where Jumbo was the star attraction.

Image: Stephen Whyte, British, b. 1969, Jumbo, 2015. Bronze. Commissioned by Tufts University through the generosity of Richard W. Reynolds, A67. 2016.67. Photo by Alonso Nichols.