St. Louis Exposition of 1904 and the Accountants\u27 Congress, Sept 26-28: their history revised for 2004

This two-day congress of accountants was held in September, 1904 during the St. Louis International Exposition. The importance of the congress for the federation of certified accountants across the United States is here confirmed. But the opportunities and intellectual challenges exposed at St. Louis, as at earlier European expositions, featured little for these pragmatic practitioners. More seriously for those claiming that an international accounting congress series began at St. Louis, an examination of its planning, agenda and participation reveals an Anglo-Saxon bias which was natural for that time. This bias was countered only by one Dutch accountant who arrived late - but who promoted the next international accounting congress twenty-four years later in Amsterdam. Thus evidence is here offered which contests claims that are still widely made, that international accounting was importantly initiated at St. Louis . Rather St. Louis was a specially American event to be understood in relation and contrast to European accountancy, expositions, competitions and congresses