Iuvenale Virtual Museum - Statue of Liberty

The Statue of Liberty

By Amanda Aldeguer

The Statue of Liberty is a massive neoclassical sculpture located on Ellis Island in New York Harbor in New York City, New York. The copper monument was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and built by Gustave Eiffel as a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States. The Statue of Liberty was a collaborative project between France and the United States, intending to commemorate the two countries’ long-standing relationship. On October 28, 1886, the statue was officially dedicated by President Grover Cleaveland.

As the American Civil War came to an end in 1865, French historian, Edouard de Laboulaye offered that France makes a statue to present to the United States in honor of the country’s success in building a viable democracy. Laboulaye has claimed in 1865 that any monument erected in honor of American independence should be a joint initiative of the French and American peoples.

The project was given to sculptor Friedric Auguste Bartholdi, who is known for large-scale sculptures; the goal was to complete the monument in time for the Declaration of Independence’s anniversary in 1876. He worked alongside Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel and Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc. Although, work on the sculpture did not commence until 1875, due to the need to gather funding for the memorial and because of the post-war instability in France.

When Bartholdi finished the statue in 1885, it was dismantled and packaged into more than 200 crates and shipped to New York in June of that year aboard the French frigate Isere. Workers reassembled the statue and installed it on the pedestal; it was 305 feet (or 93 meters) tall. The Statue of Liberty is a robed woman who represents Libertas, a Roman goddess of liberty. With her right hand, she holds a torch above her head, and IV MDCCLXXVI,” the date of the United States Declaration of Independence. At her feet is a broken chain. It was also mentioned that Bartholdi based the woman’s appearance on his own mother’s face, Augusta Charlotte Bartholdi.

The oxidation of the Statue of Liberty's copper skin due to rain, wind, and sun by the early twentieth century had given the statue a characteristic green tint known as verdigris. In 1984, the statue was closed to the public and underwent a major renovation in time for its centennial celebrations in 1985. Liberty Island was closed, again, for 100 days after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the Statue of Liberty was not reopened to the public until August 2004. The Statue’s Crown was reopened in July 2009, though visitors must make an appointment to climb the pedestal’s top of the crown.

The statue became a symbol of freedom of the United States, as well as a welcoming sight for newcomers from other countries. The Statue of Liberty is still one of the world’s most recognizable sights and an enduring symbol of freedom and democracy.

References

Statue of Liberty. (n.d). Google Arts & Culture. https://artsandculture.google.com/entity/statue-of-liberty/m072p8?categoryid=place

History.com Editors. (December 2, 2009). Statue of Liberty. HISTORY. https://www.history.com/topics/landmarks/statue-of-liberty