At the 1900 Paris Exposition, attended by an estimated 50 million people and incorporating the second Olympic Games, the UT Agricultural Experiment Station had an exhibit that illustrated its survey of the soils of Tennessee (begun by Professor Charles Vanderford in 1891) and its survey of grasses in Tennessee. Gold medals were awarded for both portions of the exhibit.
UT President Charles W. Dabney was a member of the International Jury (“Jury of Awards, composed of eminent men of science of all nations”) at the exposition. The exposition featured seventy-six thousand exhibitors, more than any previous fair, and a number not to be equaled for another quarter century. Among the engineering marvels introduced was the first multiunit train in Europe, installed by UT graduate John Bogle Cox, class of 1893. Another UT alumnus, George Washington Ochs, was publisher of the Paris edition of the New York Times during the exposition.