Jumbo the Elephant Material, 2001

Cornell University received the heart of Jumbo the elephant about 1889 in association with specimens acquired by Professor Burt Green Wilder. It no longer exists. According to the journal American medicine, Volume 7, 1904, Professor. Burt G. Wilder was planning to dissect the heart of Jumbo with a group of students. This article also gives the dimensions of Jumbo's heart as, 28 inches long x 24 inches wide, with walls of the artery 5/8 of an inch thick, large enough to contain an ordinary heart, and those of the ventricle 3 inches thick. The weight was given as around 40 pounds. The specimen jar that housed at least a portion of Jumbo’s heart is still stored at the Cornell Veterinary School. It was featured in an exhibition in the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections. The jar was found empty in the basement of Stimson Hall by Dr. Howard Evans in the 1940s. It had a label attached saying Jumbo's heart. The jar lid has loops in the glass designed for hooks to suspend the specimen.

Copies of articles, newsletters, and web pages regarding Cornell University's connection to Jumbo the elephant.

Compiled in part by the Reference Department at the Flower-Sprecher Veterinary Library, Cornell University, 2001.

Animal Legends exhibit featuring Jumbo http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/AnimalLegends/exhibition/cuanimalcelebs/jumbo.html