Staff was invented in France about 1876 and was used in the construction and ornamentation of the buildings of the Paris Expositions of 1878 and of 1889. It was also largely used in the construction of the buildings of the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893, at the Omaha and Buffalo Expositions in 1898 and 1901, at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904, and at later expositions and on temporary buildings of other kinds.