Jumbo, the 5-tonne elephant
Forty years after offending the British public with a bid to buy the cottage in which Shakespeare was born, Barnum was at it again. This time, he had his sights set on Jumbo, the five-tonne African elephant who had become a firm favourite with crowds at London’s Zoological Gardens.
Once Barnum’s agent succeeded in agreeing a $10,000 fee for Jumbo, “the outrageous sale of a national character” led to a groundswell of patriotic opposition. Jumbo-mania peaked in March 1882, when the Zoological Society’s decision to sell was legally challenged by two of its own fellows. Despite petitions to parliament, the court found in favour of the society and, over the next three years, Jumbo went on to become the star attraction in Barnum & Bailey’s travelling circus, ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’.