Jumbo - Legacy

Legacy

Jumbo's hide remained at Tufts University, where it was displayed at P.T. Barnum Hall for many years; a superstition held that dropping a coin into a nostril of the trunk would bring a good grade on an examination. Although the hide was destroyed, Jumbo remains the mascot of Tufts, and representations of elephants are featured prominently throughout its campus. The elephant's fame turned its name into a household word, with "Jumbo size" meaning "very large".

A life-size statue of the elephant was erected in 1985 in St. Thomas to commemorate the centennial of the elephant's death. It is located on Talbot Street on the west side of the city. Railway City Brewing Company in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada brews "Dead Elephant Ale," an IPA, in recognition of Jumbo's connection to St. Thomas's railway history.

Jumbo has been lionized on a series of sheet music covers from roughly 1882-83. The great four color lithograph of Jumbo was created by the famous Alfred Concanen of England and was matched with the music title 'Why Part With Jumbo', a song by the great lion comique of the British music halls, G.H. Macdermott. It pictured the children visiting the zoo and riding, somewhat precariously, on Jumbo's back. The finest of multiple American lithographic music covers was done by John Bufford.