BARNUM, PHINEAS TAYLOR, Showman . Autograph letter signed ("P.T. Barnum") to Miss Richards, Sturtevant House, New York, 31 March 1882. 1 full page, large 4to, on "Greatest Show on Earth" stationery with elaborate pictorial heading and oval portraits of Barnum and his backers, text describing the Circus' attractions, corners tipped to another sheet . BARNUM ON THE TRANSATLANTIC VOYAGE OF THE ELEPHANT JUMBO A wonderful Barnum letter: "In answer to your letter of yesterday I am glad to say Jumbo sailed from London /24 inst in the great steamship Assyrian Monarch - attended by eleven faithful servants. He is comfortably and luxuriously provided for in the best part of the ship and will probably arrive here next week Saturday April 8th. Thus far in life he has proved the most docile and good tempered elephant ever seen. When properly intorduced to his 22 dusky companions, and snugly in the bosom of this 'Happy Family' of which he will be recognized as the head, I expect he will be as happy as one can wish." "To the United States in the following spring [Barnum] brought Jumbo, who ranked with Tom Thumb and Jenny Lind as the greatest of his exploits in pure showmanship. Jumbo was a huge African elephant, long the pride of the Royal Zoological Society in London. He was sold to Barnum & Bailey in a moment of financial strait, to be regretted instantly when the British press broke out into frantic protest against this American vandalism. Barnum encouraged the protests, but imported the elephant; technically 'for breeding purposes,' to escape the payment of duty...Jumbo earned his cost in his first few weeks in America, and kept up his artistic character to the end, dying a hero's death Sept. 15 1885, when he was run down by a locomotive." (DAB). With a bust-length photo of Barnum.
BARNUM, PHINEAS TAYLOR, Showman . Autograph letter signed ("P.T. Barnum") to Miss Richards, Sturtevant House, New York, 31 March 1882. 1 full page, large 4to, on "Greatest Show on Earth" stationery with elaborate pictorial heading and oval portraits of Barnum and his backers, text describing the Circus' attractions, corners tipped to another sheet . BARNUM ON THE TRANSATLANTIC VOYAGE OF THE ELEPHANT JUMBO A wonderful Barnum letter: "In answer to your letter of yesterday I am glad to say Jumbo sailed from London /24 inst in the great steamship Assyrian Monarch - attended by eleven faithful servants. He is comfortably and luxuriously provided for in the best part of the ship and will probably arrive here next week Saturday April 8th. Thus far in life he has proved the most docile and good tempered elephant ever seen. When properly intorduced to his 22 dusky companions, and snugly in the bosom of this 'Happy Family' of which he will be recognized as the head, I expect he will be as happy as one can wish." "To the United States in the following spring [Barnum] brought Jumbo, who ranked with Tom Thumb and Jenny Lind as the greatest of his exploits in pure showmanship. Jumbo was a huge African elephant, long the pride of the Royal Zoological Society in London. He was sold to Barnum & Bailey in a moment of financial strait, to be regretted instantly when the British press broke out into frantic protest against this American vandalism. Barnum encouraged the protests, but imported the elephant; technically 'for breeding purposes,' to escape the payment of duty...Jumbo earned his cost in his first few weeks in America, and kept up his artistic character to the end, dying a hero's death Sept. 15 1885, when he was run down by a locomotive." (DAB). With a bust-length photo of Barnum.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
