Jumbo the Elephant

Jumbo the Elephant was a famous elephant of the nineteenth and early 20th centuries. Born in what is now the Sudan, Jumbo was captured at an early age by British adventurers and brought via Cairo and Paris to London, England, where it was exhibited before massive and enthusiastic audiences. It was in London that Jumbo was given his name, due to his enormous size — Jumbo stood nearly 13 feet tall!

In 1882, the American entrepreneur P.T. Barnum rescued Jumbo and brought him to America as part of the Barnum & Bailey Circus. However, Jumbo's life was cut short when he was electrocuted while crossing a railroad track. After death, Jumbo's carcass was stuffed and preserved in oil, and continued to tour with the circus until it was handed over to Tufts University for further study. Lost for many years, the taxidermized body was believed to have been completely destroyed in a fire in 1975.