NARHFThe Jumbo Room
The Elgin Military Museum may well be the only such museum on the continent that has a room dedicated to an elephant. However, Jumbo, the largest elephant ever held in captivity, met his demise here in St. Thomas, Ontario on September 15, 1885. In 1985, in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of his death, a life-size monument of this gentle animal was installed on the brow of the hill a few hundred yards up the street from the Museum. Born in present day Mali, Africa in 1861, after capture, he was sent first to the Paris Zoo and then on to the London Zoo. In 1882, zoo patrons petitioned Queen Victoria asking that she step in and not permit him to be sold to P.T. Barunum for his circus. His size was reported to be 10 feet 7 inches (3.25 metres) when in the London Zoo, and at the time of his death, he was said to be approximately 13 feet 1 inch (4 metres) tall . His name, Jumbo, has now come to mean anything extraordinarily large.
A much repeated, if not totally accurate story, states that after an evening performance of the Barnum Circus in St. Thomas, Jumbo and a young elephant known as Tom Thumb were being led by their trainer, Mr. Scott, to their special rail cars. When an unscheduled freight train came down the track, Jumbo pushed his trainer and Tom Thumb to the side but was unable to get out of the way himself and was killed.
The Jumbo room contains artefacts relating to the life of this great elephant and the lore which has grown up around him. If you have any items relating to Jumbo that you would consider loaning or donating to the Museum, please let us know and we would be happy to discuss this with you.
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