The technical history of the enterprise may be briefly recounted as follows: The Exhibition was really a natural outgrowth of the Universal Exposition held at Paris in 1867. That affair was much the most extensive international exhibition ever held up to that time, and its brilliant success produced a marked impression throughout the civilized world. Austria took immediate measures to rival it, and carried out her ambitious plans six years later at Vienna. Among the many Americans who saw the wonderful show on the banks of the Seine there were many who expressed a desire to see an enterprise of the kind attempted in their own country. It is believed that Gen. C. B. Norton, of New York, one of the Commissioners to the Paris Exposition, was the first who suggested the idea of a World’s Fair to commemorate the Centennial Anniversary of American Independence. This he did while viewing the preparations for the exposition in the Champs de Mars in company with Mr. Dudley S. Gregory, of New York, in the summer of 1866. His plan was to hold the exhibition in Central Park. Mr. Gregory returned in the fall and laid the matter before the American Institute, but it does not appear that any action was taken. The next agitation of the question was in June, 1868, when at a meeting of the Massachusetts exhibitors at Paris, held in the Music Hall, Boston, for the distribution of the awards forwarded by the French Government to this country, Dr. C. J. Jackson offered a resolution in favor of an international exhibition in Washington, to open July 4th, 1876. After some speech-making the resolution was adopted. In the fall of the same year a meeting to forward the project was held in New York under the chairmanship of Dr. G. B. Loring. A committee of nine was appointed, but there the matter ended. New York had failed to appreciate the grandeur and importance of the project. Washington had a livelier comprehension, but was too poor to do anything that involved expenditure.