Barnum's Animals Crackers
Photo credit: Photo: Willis Lam, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The little circus-wagon box of animal-shaped cookies with the string handle — worn around the neck like a tiny snack pendant by generations of kids. Nabisco's Barnum's Animals date to 1902, when the string was added so the box could hang on a Christmas tree, and they never left the grocery shelf.
The National Biscuit Company (Nabisco) branded them "Barnum's Animals" in 1902, borrowing the Barnum & Bailey circus theme for a box designed like a circus cage wagon. The string handle was added that same year — the box was built to hang from a Christmas tree as an ornament, retailing at 5 cents. The string never left, which is why a century of kids treated the box as wearable: around the neck, swinging from a wrist, looped over a bike handlebar.
The crackers themselves evolved quietly. In 1958, rotary dies let bakers engrave real detail into each animal, and over the brand's life 53 different animals have appeared — including a koala added in September 2002 after a consumer vote. More than 40 million packages still sell annually across the US and 17 other countries, baked in Fair Lawn, New Jersey.
The box outlasted the circus itself. In August 2018, Mondelez (Nabisco's parent company) redesigned the packaging in consultation with PETA: the animals now roam free across a savanna instead of riding in circus cages, ending the 116-year wagon design every earlier generation grew up with. The crackers stayed the same. The context didn't.
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