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The Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World) is a 225-ton, steel-reinforced copper female figure, 152 ft in height, facing the ocean from Liberty Island1 in New York Harbor. The right hand holds aloft a torch, and the left hand carries a tablet upon which is inscribed: July IV MDCCLXXVI.
The statue was designed by Fredric Auguste Bartholdi of Alsace as a gift to the United States from the people of France to memorialize the alliance of the two countries in the American Revolution and their abiding friendship. The French people contributed the $250,000 cost.
The 150-foot pedestal was designed by Richard M. Hunt and built by Gen. Charles P. Stone, both Americans. It contains steel underpinnings designed by Alexander Eiffel of France to support the statue. The $270,000 cost was borne by popular subscription in this country. President Grover Cleveland accepted the statue for the United States on Oct. 28, 1886.
The Statue of Liberty was designated a National Monument in 1924 and a World Heritage Site in 1984.
On Sept. 26, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon dedicated the American Museum of Immigration, housed in structural additions to the base of the statue. In 1984 scaffolding went up for a major restoration and the torch was extinguished on July 4. It was relit with much ceremony July 4, 1986, to mark its centennial.
On a tablet inside the pedestal is engraved the following sonnet, written by Emma Lazarus (18491887):
The New Colossus Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame.
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp! cries she
With silent lips. Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
1. Called Bedloe's Island prior to 1956.
The Statue of Liberty was designed in the 1870's by a famous sculptor from France. A sculptor is a person who builds statues from materials such as marble, clay, or copper. Mr. Auguste Bartholdi, the French sculptor desired to build a statue, which would represent the idea of American liberty and independence. He desired to raise the funds for the project by receiving gifts from the French people. He wanted the statue to be a symbol of the friendship between France and America.
Mr. Bartholdi believed that a trip to American would give him the impressions, which could help him form a picture in his mind for his sculpture. During his visit to America, he contacted some of our country's leaders and talked to them about his project. Most leaders supported Mr. Auguste Bartholdi's idea. Even President Grant, who once led the Union armies during the Civil War, met with Mr. Bartholdi to have a friendly talk about the construction of the statue.
People were happy to show Mr. Bartholdi interesting places in America. He saw how different American architecture, or construction, was from the architecture of France. Mr. Auguste Bartholdi saw the beautiful Washington Monument, which was still unfinished at the time. He visited cities and saw forest, plains and mountains. He saw canals. Railroad cars, and busy roads. After Mr. Bartholdi had stored up all his impressions of America, he went home to work on his sculpture project.
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Can a sculptor take an idea, such as liberty, and mold it into a statue? Sculptors have taken many ideas and turned them into forms. A sculptor has often shown his impression of courage through a sculpture of a dying soldier. Anyone who has seen a statue of an eagle with its wings spread wide has been left with an impression of strength and power. What form was a clear symbol of liberty? No sculptor had ever before attempted to mold the idea of liberty into a sculptured form.
Finally, Mr. Auguste Batholdi had the impression clearly fixed in his mind. Liberty was to be represented by a woman in a robe with a spiked crown on her head and broken chains lying at her feet.
For a model for the sculpture Mr. Bartholdi chose his mother. His mother was a tall strong woman who had shown courage through numbers of hardships, which she faced after the death of her husband. With no husband she had been forced to take care of her family and work out her problems alone. He recognized, in his mother, many of the characteristics he wanted for his statue. He thought of the many times throughout his boyhood that her presence had been a shelter of peace and safety. He had always been able to go to her with his troubles and cares and receive strength and help for the occasion. She was his mother, but also his friend. For Mr. Bartholdi, America was like his mother. America's presence in the world offered hope for the hungry, poor, and unemployed millions of people who were struggling along in life throughout the world. The complete and proper name for the statue is Liberty Enlightening the World.
Liberty Enlightening the World was to be a strong woman in a robe, which fell in loose folds. In her left arm, she would hold a document, which had the date of the Declaration of Independence on it. Her right arm would hold a torch high in the air. The light from the torch that was to picture America as she enlightened the world with her newly discovered understanding of independence and liberty for all. On the head of the statue would be a crown with large spikes. The spikes, which rested upon the crown of the statue, would look like sunrays pointing in all directions. The chains at her feet would be broken as a symbol of freedom from rule of any other country.
Now that the impression of liberty was clearly stamped on the mind of the sculptor, he began the task of finding a way to mold the idea into a form. A small, exact model of the statue was modeled. The first form was only four feet (120 centimeters) high.
To help with the tremendous engineering task of building the large statue, Mr. Bartholdi contracted and employed a French engineer named Mr. Gustave Eiffel, Me Eiffel's job was to erect and iron and steel framework for the statue. Mr. Gustave Eiffel later became famous for his designs of the great Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.
When Mr. Bartholdi contacted Mr. Eiffel about helping him with his tremendous project, Mr. Eiffel had many suggestions to make. He suggested that the inside framework be erected of iron and that steel supports be connected to the frame. The iron and the steel structure would have to be built strong enough to bear its own weight and resist the forces of winds, which might blow across Liberty Island.
The statue was so tremendous in size that it was necessary to work on the statue in sections. Visitors to the workshop were surprised by the seeming lack of order in the way the men employed were going about their project. The crowned head was on one side of the workshop, an arm on another, and materials were scattered around the room. Those looking on expected a statue to rise as a whole form the toes upward. The sculptor was often among the workers so that he could supervise the construction. Mr. Bartholdi determined which of the four pieces would be worked on and when. Those employed by him simply carried out his plans.
Mr. Bartholdi's presence was necessary in the workshop, as the construction of the statue was hard to understand.
Over 300 copper sheets, 3/32 of an inch (3 millimeters) thick, were molded into the form of the statue by hammering them over the wooden frame. Copper is a reddish-orange metal. Copper is very bright and shiny when it is new. When the statue was first erected on Liberty Island, the sun'' rays, which bounced from the copper, were tremendously bright and almost blinding. However, salt water blowing in from the ocean and changing conditions in New York's climate have turned the monument a greenish color.
In 1876 a full-scale model of the arm and torch was shipped to Philadelphia and put on display. Just the flame of the model on display was thirteen feet (400 centimeters) high and twelve men could stand around the edge of the torch. The model was later displayed in New York City.
In July 1881, news arrived from France that the statue would be completed in 1883. As of yet, the pedestal for holding Liberty Enlightening the World had not been built. Americans had agreed to raise the funds for the pedestal, but not enough had been raised to cover the cost of completing the pedestal. At the time, however, an architect had already been contacted employed to draw up the plans. N architect is a designer of buildings. The architect announced that it would take about nine months to complete the pedestal needed to support the tremendously heavy iron and steel framework of the statue.
Funds began coming in to begin building the pedestal, but not nearly enough were received for completing it. A newspaper called "The World" began writing articles about the statue. The newspaper pointed out how terrible it would be to have France send over such a beautiful and expensive gift and have no pedestal built on which it could rest. After the newspaper came out, one might suppose that a wealthy man would sign over a check for the full amount. The truth is; however, no one felt the need to do such an act. Instead, gifts of $1.00 or less came in from school children, housewives, and everyday workers struggling to make a living. People in America sacrificed to give funds for the building of the pedestal, just as the French citizens and school children had sacrificed to give funds for the building of the statue.
In all, a large number of people (120,000) sent in small amounts of funds for the construction of the pedestal. In 1885 the pedestal was being hurriedly constructed.
Mr. Auguste Bartholdi felt his presence was necessary on Liberty Island to assure that the pedestal was going according to plans.
The Statue of Liberty was erected and displayed in Paris in 1884. Over the roofs of Paris homes, the statue could be seen towering high into the sky. The statue was then taken down and packed in 49 cases. The iron and steel frame filled 36 other cases. It took months to take the statue down and to number and pack each piece. At last the statue was loaded and delivered by ship to America.
The statue was put up a section at a time. The statue was not unveiled until it was complete. From start to finish, Mr. Bartholdi's project covered more than ten years of hard work. In 1871 the idea became fixed in his mind, but the project was not completed until 1886.
One fall day bear sunset in 1886, the Statue of Liberty was unveiled and displayed for all to see. During the celebration, ships from the harbor began firing cannons as flags flew from the roofs of buildings. Americans looked at the Statue Enlightening the World and remembered that many had given their lives that America might be a free land. A minister spoke words of praise for the kindness and concern of the French people toward our nation.
Since the year the statue was erected, few repairs have had to be made. In 1937 the spikes on the crown were removed and repaired with new iron frames. When the statue was first built, light came only from the crown. Later, pieces of the copper flame on he torch were gradually cut away, and very bright light bulbs (1000 watts each) were placed inside the torch. The torch gave light 2,500 times brighter than moonlight. Occasionally, engineers needed to climb the steep ladder inside the raised arm to replace one of the light bulbs. Between 1984 and 1986, French workmen built a new copper flame and covered it with a thin layer of gold. Spotlights were placed on the catwalk around the torch to shine on the flame.
There is a museum inside the pedestal of the statue. From the museum, visitors are allowed to climb the steep stairs leading to the crown. While standing on a balcony, they can look down on New York Harbor and New York City. The following is part of a poem, which is written on a stone on t he pedestals. The last five lines of the poem are the most famous and are memorized by thousands of students each year.
The New Colossus
. . . . Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome;. . . . .
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
By Emma Lazarus
As crowds of people gathered for the unveiling of the great statue, a huge steamship loaded with immigrants passed. The tired, weary travelers must have wondered what the occasion was for all the excitement. Since that time, millions of immigrants have looked at the unveiled Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island with tears filling their eyes and joy flooding their hearts. Parents have lifted their small children so that they also might get sight of the great statue. This great symbol of America has brought hope to many weary travelers who have left their old homelands.
"Why," asked Europeans, "did God so long keep secret the presence of this new American continent?" There is no doubt that the American continent had been hidden by God and was then uncovered by Him at just the right time. It seemed that God had hidden his part of the earth in order to unveil it for the purpose of beginning a new and exciting history.
Since her discovery, America has offered many millions of exiles throughout the world a new beginning in life. The writer of the poem, which is written on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, calls America "Mother of Exiles." An exile is one who has been forced to leave his country.
How did so many people find out about the opportunities in this half of the world? Letters telling of work opportunities and newly found freedom poured back from America to Europe. During the 1680's, tracts written in English, French, and German were distributed in Europe. People head about the colony of Pennsylvania. In Pennsylvania, exiles were promised a home where they could live in peace and plenty and could help make their own laws. Best of all, they could worship as they wished.
Why did so many people, for over 300 years, follow the light of liberty across the ocean? A new homeland offered men freedom. America offered many people freedom from rule of harsh governments. To others, America meant freedom to worship God according to their beliefs. Still others came to America in search of opportunities to become prosperous. To all of these, America offered the freedom to put their minds and ideas to work.
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The U. S. Constitution
