Some jumbo-sized changes are in store at Tufts University, as the Medford campus prepares to unveil its long awaited mascot — an 11-foot-by-18-foot bronze elephant sculpture.
Workers lifted the statue by crane this week and installed it in a garden on the campus green, but it will remain covered in tarps and hidden from the public until an official ceremony next Friday.
It’s still hard to miss, given its size.
The construction of the finely detailed “Jumbo” statue was fully funded by Dick Reynolds, a graduate of the class of 1967.
Other alumni donated money for the installation and landscaping of the garden that surrounds Jumbo, Tufts officials said.
Advertisement
“This will be an animated and dynamic Jumbo that will survive the test of time and provide an enduring monument for the campus,” said Tufts professor Andrew McClellan in a statement.
McClellan led the committee tasked with finding a sculptor to create the statue.
The school had planned to unveil the roughly 5,000-pound elephant back in September, but California sculptor Steven Whyte, who was commissioned for the larger-than-life project, encountered some roadblocks and the celebration was delayed.
“While we had hoped to install the sculpture in the fall, completing it involved casting and assembling some 50 pieces–sort of a Jumbo puzzle–and required more time than originally anticipated,” said Tufts spokeswoman Kimberly Thurler in an e-mail.
Whyte’s structure is based on Tufts’ first mascot, the elephant whose stuffed hide was gifted to the school by entertainer P.T. Barnum, of Barnum and Bailey circus fame.
Barnum, one of the school’s founding trustees, had Jumbo prepared by a taxidermist after the elephant was struck and killed by a train in Canada in 1885.
After traveling with Jumbo’s remains for several years as part of his circus act, Barnum shipped Jumbo to the school, to go on permanent display at the newly constructed Barnum Museum of Natural History.
Advertisement
In 1975, however, the mascot was destroyed in an electrical fire that burned the building to the ground.
The ashes from the original Jumbo remain in a peanut butter jar in the office of the school’s athletic director to this day.
That elephant was later replaced with a papier-mâché and concrete model from a New Hampshire amusement park, which, until recently, had been on school grounds since the 1990s.
Shifting away from the cartoonish look of the latest mascot, Whyte’s statue is based on the actual appearance and size of the famous elephant that captivated audiences during performances in the 1880s.
Whyte shaped the sculpture using a photo taken of Jumbo in London in 1882 as a reference.
The installation of his sculpture marks a homecoming for Tufts students and faculty.
“Jumbo instills school pride. He is part of what makes Tufts so special,” McClellan said. “Jumbo and Tufts have a unique history.”
Jumbo's in his garden! 💙🎉🐘🎉💙 pic.twitter.com/1frkxPNgdX
— Tufts University (@TuftsUniversity) April 9, 2015
Steve Annear can be reached at steve.annear@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @steveannear.