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Barnum, P. T.

[Pair of P. T. Barnum autograph letters, signed, relating to the animals in his show being live, not stuffed, with the exception of Jumbo.]

London, [ca. 1887]. Autograph note, initialed, and autograph letter, signed, both in ink, one on bifolium leaf of “Hotel Victoria” in London, 8” x 5”, the other on letterhead of “P. T. Barnum’s Greatest Show on Earth. ‘Olympia,” 8” x 5”, with original envelope of “P. T. Barnum’s Greatest Show on Earth” addressed in ink to “Editor New York Herald : 110 Strand W.C.” CONDITION: Letters very good, each with one old horizontal fold (beginning to separate on “Hotel Victoria” sheet); envelope very good, slightly soiled and dampstained.

A resonant pair of P. T. Barnum communications addressed to the editor of the New York Herald, correcting the paper’s statement that the majority of animals in his menagerie are stuffed, and including a poignant remark about the beloved and now taxidermied Jumbo the elephant, the most famous circus animal of all time.

The first letter, written on Barnum’s own letterhead and headed with the word “Private,” addresses the editor directly, and reads as follows:

Your remark “Most of his marvellous works of nature are stuffed” will of course inflict great injury on me, unless corrected by my enclosed brief letter

P.T.B.

The second letter, on Hotel Victoria letterhead, reads:

To the Editor of the New York Herald

In your leading editorial of today is a remark concerning the menagerie department of my show which might mislead your readers. All of the animals are alive and in fine condition except Jumbo. His skin is stuffed, and his colossal skeleton stands beside it in charge of his faithful old keeper Matthew Scott.

P.T. Barnum

Oct 27th

Barnum acquired Jumbo, an African bush elephant, from the London Zoo in 1882, despite much public outcry in Britain. He was enormously popular in North America, but died in 1885 after being struck by a train on the way to his boxcar after a performance in St. Thomas, Ontario. His hide was stuffed and displayed, as Barnum’s letter states, next to his skeleton, until both were given to Tufts University in 1889 to be displayed in the Barnum Museum of Natural History. Scott, Jumbo’s keeper, had worked for the London Zoo for over a decade, traveled to Paris to escort Jumbo to England, and accompanied him to the U.S. Although several tales of Jumbo’s death are likely myth, accounts seem to agree that “Jumbo did clasp his beloved trainer in his trunk before dying” (“The Story”). Jumbo’s remains were mostly destroyed by a fire at Tufts’ Barnum Museum in 1975.

REFERENCES: “The story of Jumbo,” Tufts Journal, October 2001; Storrs, Francis. “The Great Barnum Fire: An Oral History,” Tufts Now online.

Item #9804

Price: $2,750.00

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