in the U.S. respectively. Author Marvin Olasky said public relations in the 1800s was spontaneous and de-centralized. In the 1820s, Americans wanted to disprove the perspective of French aristocrats that the American democracy run by "the mob" had "no sense of history, no sense of gratitude to those who had served it, and no sense of the meaning of 'virtue'". To combat this perception, French aristocrat Marquis de Lafayette, who helped fund the American Revolution, was invited to a tour of the United States. Each community he visited created a committee to welcome him and promote his visit. In the mid-1800s P. T. Barnum founded the American Museum and the Barnum and Bailey Circus. He became well known for publicizing his circus using manipulative techniques. For example, he announced that his museum would exhibit a 161-year-old woman, who had been Washington's nurse, then produced an elderly woman and a forged birth certificate. In the 1860s, the major railway companies building the Transcontinental Railroad (Central Pacific Railroad in Sacramento, California, and the Union Pacific Railroad in New York City) engaged in "sophisticated and systematic corporate public relations" in order to raise $125 million needed to construct the 1,776-mile-long railroad. To raise the money, the companies needed to maintain "an image attractive to potential bond buyers, [and maintain relationships] with members of Congress, the California state legislature, and federal regulators; with workers and potential workers; and with journalists." Early environmental campaigning groups like the Coal Abatement Society and the Congo Reform Association were formed in the late-1800s. In the late 1800s many of the now-standard practices of media relations, such as conducting interviews and press conferences emerged. Industrial firms began to promote their public image. The German steel and armaments company Krupp created the first corporate press department in 1870 to write articles, brochures and other communications advertising the firm. The first US corporate PR department was established in 1889 by Westinghouse Electric Corporation. "The first public relations department was created by the inventor and industrialist George Westinghouse in 1889 when he hired two men to publicize his pet project,alternating current (AC) electricity." The first appearance of the term "public relations" was in the 1897 Year Book of Railway Literature. Origins as a profession The book Today's Public Relations: An Introduction says that, although experts disagree on public relations' origins, many identify the early 1900s as its beginning as a paid profession.