The National Biscuit Company first issued its animal-shaped "biscuit" crackers, named Barnum's Animals, in 1902 when the traveling circus was a very popular form of public entertainment. The small box of crackers printed to resemble a circus wagon was a novel bit of packaging and quite a change from the traditional cracker barrel which held bulk quantities of crackers. The small box of crackers appeared at Christmastime, and the short string handle on the box allowed the boxes to hang nicely from Christmas trees. In 1948, Nabisco changed the name of its cookies to Barnum's Animal Crackers, and by 1958, changes in the production of the cookies gave each of the 37 animals depicted in the dough more detail.The teeny boxes of crackers have been popular for more than 100 years, and presently, the company sells more than 40 million boxes of animal crackers each year.
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