The Cannon, Goddard Chapel, and Jumbo
The Cannon, the replica USS Constitution cannon that Tufts students traditionally paint, and the Goddard Chapel, home of Tufts Chaplaincy
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The Cannon, Goddard Chapel, and Jumbo
⭐ The Cannon, Goddard Chapel, and Jumbo
The Tufts Cannon and Jumbo, both located near Goddard Chapel, are two key aspects of Tufts history and tradition.
The Cannon and Goddard Chapel
The Cannon is a replica of a cannon from the USS Constitution given to Tufts by the City of Medford. According to Tufts legend, the tradition of painting the Cannon began back in the 1970s, when a student decided to protest the ongoing Vietnam War. In the middle of the night, she got a bucket of paint and painted the cannon solid white as a symbol of peace. Unfortunately, later that night Facilities found the cannon and painted it black again. The student was bothered by this, so the next night she came out and painted the cannon again. But this time, she guarded it all night, so that if anyone wanted to paint over it, they’d have to get through her first. Come morning light, we had a white cannon. In creating this tradition, she established the two rules of painting the Cannon: you can only paint the cannon when the sun is down, and you have to guard it until the sun comes up again. Today, the cannon is painted to promote or recruit members for a club, to advertise, to advocate, protest, or just to have fun. It’s even been painted for wedding proposals
Another quintessential tradition at Tufts is the Illumination Ceremony, which bookends your Tufts experience. When Charles Tufts founded our university in 1852, he fulfilled his dream of “setting a light” upon the Hill of our campus. To honor his vision, every class will gather on the President’s Lawn, which the Cannon faces, the night of their Matriculation and the night before their Commencement. Candles are passed out to every student at the beginning of the ceremony, and eventually one is lit. One by one, Tufts students share their light with their classmates until the whole lawn is lit. In this moment, we all become the metaphorical light on the hill which Charles Tufts envisioned.
The University Chaplaincy hosts the Illumination Ceremony. Based out of Goddard Chapel, the stone building next to the cannon, the Tufts University Chaplaincy is a dynamic hub supporting religious, spiritual, ethical, and cultural life for all members of the Tufts community. Six chaplains-Buddhist, Catholic, Humanist, Jewish, Muslim, and Protestant-make up the Tufts Chaplaincy. Tufts recognizes the importance of supporting non-religious students, and thus has the only university-funded Humanist Chaplain in the country.
Our Mascot, Jumbo
So, who is Jumbo?
Jumbo is our giant elephant mascot and was a part of PT Barnum's circus.
Jumbo the elephant was probably Barnum's biggest investment, and we mean that literally. This guy was huge. Massive. He was so large, people started using his name to describe big things. Heard of "jumbo shrimp" or "jumbo marshmallows"? All thanks to him! He also led a parade of elephants across the Brooklyn Bridge in NYC. No wonder he was the star of the greatest show on Earth!
According to the story, Jumbo died in a train accident after saving a dwarf elephant named Tom Thumb. Barnum then donated Jumbo's stuffed body to Tufts because at that time he was part of our Board of Trustees, and that's how Jumbo arrived to campus.
He was a huge hit with the students. You know how you rub a statue for good luck? We pulled on his tail instead…or at least we did until his tail fell off. If you're interested, that piece of him is stored in the archives at Tisch Library.
But, that's not the end of his story. Because if you notice, we don't have the stuffed elephant anymore. So, what happened?
In 1975, Barnum Hall, where Jumbo was housed, went up in an electrical fire. Our athletics director was passing by that night and he happened to have an empty peanut butter jar in his backpack (because, who doesn't carry that around?) The director scooped up the ashes of our elephant and there lies the rest of Jumbo. To this day, Jumbo’s ashes are stored in that jar in the athletic director’s office. Student-athletes from our 28 Division III teams - called Jumbos - shake the jar for good luck before their games.
Today, a statue of Jumbo statue stands in front of Barnum Hall on the Academic Quad, located on the opposite side of Ballou Hall from the Tufts Cannon.
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