Written by Reginald Frontispiece LtdPhineas Taylor Barnum died on this day April 7, 1891. He was famously responsible for the origin of terms such as "jumbo jet" and "jumbo sausage". But how comes? Well, because he purchased Jumbo the Elephant from the London Zoo and made him into a celebrity! Born in Bethel, Connecticut in the United States in 1810, Phineas Barnum was famous for founding the Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1871. Jumbo, a male African bush elephant, was born in Sudan in about 1860. His mother was killed by a Sudanese elephant hunter and, whist still a calf, he was sold to the European 'exotic animals' market. He was first exhibited at the German "Menagerie Kreutzberg", subsequently moving to the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, and then in 1865 to the London Zoo. Jumbo the Elephant was an immediate success with the crowds, giving rides to children and achieving celebrity status in Victorian England. However, in 1882 he was sold by the London Zoological Society to the Barnum & Bailey Circus for £2,000. The sale met with much protest. 100,000 children wrote to Queen Victoria asking her to intervene and 'save' Jumbo. Despite these protests, and a court case that attempted to ban the sale, Phineas Barnum's ownership of the elephant was upheld. In Spring 1882, Jumbo began his journey to the United States through the streets of London. It was thronged with spectators - many of them in tears. At St Katherine's Dock, he boarded a barge which transported him down the River Thames to the Millwall Docks, on the Isle of Dogs, from there to begin his journey across the Atlantic Ocean. Exhibited by Barnum at Madison Square Garden, after just three weeks Jumbo had produced a profit for the showman on his investment. Jumbo was one of twenty one of Barnum's elephants that crossed the Brooklyn Bridge to prove that it was safe to cross. After such success, it was time to take Jumbo on tour. On September 15, 1885 Jumbo was performing in St. Thomas in Ontario, Canada. The 'Greatest Show on Earth' had finished and Jumbo was making his way back to his box car when he was struck by an engine. The railway train was derailed but Jumbo died within minutes of the accident. Ever the showman, Phineas Barnum had Jumbo stuffed and he continued to tour with the circus for a further two years! His skeleton was donated to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, where it can still be seen today. The name Jumbo became synonymous with anything large, hence the Victorian Jumbo Water Tower in Colchester, Essex. The image is an antique print of Jumbo at the Millwall Docks courtesy of Frontispiece Ltd.You can view it here.