The Centennial Exhibition marked an impor tant stage in the industrial development of the United States, as well as in the growth of indus trial expositions generally. Coming. as it did, at a time of prosperity following the Civil War, it offered an opportunity for individual manufac turers to show the great advances that had been made under the stimulus of the demands of active trade. It was, moreover, the first opportunity where the products and manufactures of every section of the United States were so to gether as to give a concrete representation of the material resources and capacities of the nation as a whole. The aspect given to the exhibition by the cooperation of foreign countries served to emphasize the closer commercial rela tions that were being established between the United states and various distant nations. From South America and the Far East came extensive exhibits; and it may be mentioned as a single consequence that articles of dapanese ture became well known in the United States for I he first time, and soon entered into extensive use for decorative and other purposes. The fine quality of many goods exhibited by European makers was impressed upon Anwriean manufac turers, and an important result was the tendency to adapt their labor-sa ing and more rapid ma chinery to the manufacture of higher grades and more ornamental products. The bringing together of important works of art also was an event. of importance to the American people, whose art galleries and academies were at that tune in little more than a formative state. I1reat est of all the lessons learned from the exhibition was the realization. not only of the great prog ress, hut of the extended and diverse resources of the nation, together with its homogeneity and po tentiality in industrial matters, in spite of the then recent war, devastating a large and im portant territory. As the exhibition was visited
by numerous visitors from abroad, these facts were equally patent to them and served todemon strate to the world the extent of the development of the t nited States. IZegarded in its larger as pect, the Exhibition illustrated con dition, existing at a time when the changes wrought by the development of rapid communica tion and the extended use of molt:mien] power in various industries mere (dearly indicated. The railway. telegraph, and post-office hail already bound the world closely together. so that a more intimate acquaintance among nations and easier interchange of goods was possible. The use of steam and inventive genius had effected trans formations in manufacturing, and the methods in vogue in the United States were now brought to the serious attention of Europe. As an exhibition, the Centennial was organized on a larger sea he and on a more truly international basis than any previously attempted, and as a result its success was extraordinary. Being the first exhibition of the kind in the United States, it paved the way for subsequent undertakings which have proved as successful. See Exult:•rio:Ns. lxnusrmAt..
The history of the exhibition is given in a series of nine volumes published by the Depart ment of State (Washington, ISSO), of which Vols. I. and IL are devoted to the reports of the director-general and the chiefs of the bureaus of administration; Vols. Ill. to VIII., which were edited by Francis Walker. to a description of the exhibits; and Vol. IX., a quarto volume, by Dorsey Gardner, to the grounds and buildings.