[Of obscure origin.] A building material consisting of plaster mixed with fiber, used for temporary ornamental work.
1892. Advance (Chicago), May 19. When mixed the staff is rolled out into slabs to be nailed to the sides of buildings, or made up in blocks … for statues, friezes or cornices.
1892. Times (weekly ed.), 21 Oct., 10/1. They [the Exhibition buildings at Chicago] are … covered with the composition of plaster, cement, and hemp, or similar fibre, known as ‘Staff.’ Ibid. The sculpture and decorations on the buildings are also chiefly of ‘staff,’ being first modelled in clay.
1893. Offic. Guide World’s Columbian Expos., 21. Staff was invented in France about 1876, and was first used in the buildings of the Paris Exposition in 1878.
