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Statue of Liberty

In the summer of 1865, French intellectuals gathered for a dinner party near Versailles. The diners, who opposed Napoleon III's oppressive rule, discussed the American success in establishing a democracy, a success that owed a debt to the generous support of France during the American Revolution. The scholar Edouard Rene Lefevre de Laboulaye noted that, in 11 years, Americans would celebrate the centennial of the country's independence. He suggested that the French and Americans should collaborate once again; this time, to build a monument to commemorate American independence.

Laboulaye's suggestion made a lasting impression on at least one of the guests: Frederic- Auguste Bartholdi, a successful 31-year-old sculptor. "[T]his conversation interested me so deeply that it became fixed in my memory," Bartholdi says in a book written years later. He wrote The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World (1885) to encourage donations from the US public to build the statue's pedestal; the US government had shown little interest in the project.

After fighting in the Franco-Prussian War and watching the rise of France's Third Republic, Bartholdi met again with Laboulaye, who suggested that the sculptor should visit the US. "Go to see that country," he said. "You will study it, you will bring back to us your impressions." Laboulaye told Bartholdi to promote the idea of a monument to honor the friendship between France and the US. The project, he predicted, would have a far-reaching moral effect in both countries.

Bartholdi took his friend's advice. In 1871, as his ship entered New York Harbor, the sculptor saw the perfect location for the monument: Bedloe's Island. Positioned at the portal of the country, the land happened to be owned by the US government. While Bartholdi traveled across America, he advanced his plan with sketches of Lady Liberty. His proposal was met with interest, but it failed to excite monetary commitments.

Following his return to France, Bartholdi focused on other projects. One of these, a statue of the Marquis de Lafayette cast in bronze, would be presented to New York City as a gift from France. In 1874, Bartholdi and Laboulaye reconsidered a French-American monument. They decided that France could pay for the statue, and that the US could pay for the pedestal and foundation.

The necessity of shipping the statue overseas limited the material used in the monument; stone and bronze would be too heavy. Bartholdi worked with Caget, Gauthier and Company, a group of experts in repousse, a metalworking technique for creating a sculptural form by hammering malleable metal from the reverse side.

To ensure the accuracy of the colossal statue's proportions, Bartholdi made a series of progressively larger models. First, he made a statue four feet high, which was used to cast a model about nine feet high. He reproduced this model as a 36 foot plaster statue supported by a wooden frame. After correcting the model's details, the statue was divided into nearly 300 sections, which would be reproduced about four times in size. Nine thousand measurements were required to replicate a single section of the final statue.

Carpenters fitted a mold of laminated wood against the plaster surface of each of the enlarged, final sections. Workers used mallets and rammers to press copper sheets against the mold. Copper rivets joined the shaped copper pieces together for the envelope of the statue. This cover would be supported with a skeleton of iron and steel, designed by Alexandre- Gustave Eiffel, who would later build Paris' famous tower.

In the beginning, Bartholdi and Laboulaye had hoped to honor America's centennial by presenting the Statue of Liberty to the United States on 4 July, 1876. However, they could not raise sufficient money to meet that date. Bartholdi did have the chance to display a 30-foot raised arm and torch on the final days of the 1876 International Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. Visitors climbed a ladder to a balcony that surrounded Lady Liberty's torch.

The Franco-American Union, which had been struggling to raise funds for the statue, tried a new strategy: They held a lottery. Prizes included a silver plate valued at about $20,000, expensive jewelry and two works by Bartholdi. The group also sold numbered and signed clay models of the statute. By July 1882, the group had raised adequate funds to complete Lady Liberty, a project that now ran about $250,000. All the money had come from individual donations. Bartholdi and his craftsmen completed the statue in 1883. Since the US pedestal had yet to be built, the statue remained in Paris' Rue de Chazelles. Lady Liberty would enjoy the view far longer than Bartholdi anticipated.

In 1877, the US Congress authorized the setting aside of ground in New York Harbor for the monument. As Bartholdi had requested, the monument would reside on Bedloe's Island. Under the guidance of chief engineer General Charles P. Stone, the pedestal would be built in the center of Fort Wood, an 11-pointed, star-shaped battery constructed in 1811 to defend the harbor. The pedestal's granite outer wall would encase a massive shaft of concrete reinforced with girders. Designed by Richard Morris Hunt, the pedestal would be one of the heaviest pieces of masonry ever built.

Funds for the pedestal trickled in. Congress rejected a bill that would have appropriated $100,000 for the base. The New York legislature approved a grant of $50,000, but the governor vetoed it. Individuals were reluctant to donate until they could be convinced that the French would complete the enormous statue. Outside of New York, many Americans decided that the city itself could pay for "New York's lighthouse".

Efforts by the American half of the Franco-American Union met apathy. By 1884, the organization had collected $182,491, and most of this had been spent. Work on the pedestal stopped in the fall; less than 20 percent had been completed. The American committee needed to raise an additional $100,000.

The statue itself stands 151 feet, 1 inch high. The statue rests on a pedestal and base 154 feet from the ground. For 13 years, the Statue of Liberty was the tallest structure in New York. The statue contains 100 tons of copper and 125 tons of steel. The concrete foundation weighs 27,000 tons. Folds of the statue's drapery allow copper sheets to expand or contract with changing temperature. The pedestal is anchored so securely to the foundation and the rock below that a wind storm would almost have to capsize the island before overturning the statue. The crown's 25 windows symbolize gemstones found on the earth and the heaven's light shining over the world. The crown's seven rays represent the seven seas and continents of the world. Charlotte Beysser Bartholdi, the sculptor's mother, was the model for the Statue of Liberty.

When Joseph Pulitzer learned that a lack of funds might doom the Statue of Liberty, he decided to use his two newspapers, the New York World and the St. Louis Post- Dispatch, to raise money, as well as circulation. In the financial newspaper, the World, he blasted the wealthy for their selfishness, while promising to publish the name of anyone who contributed to the monument project. Pulitzer stressed that the money for the pedestal should be donated by all Americans, not by the wealthy and not by the government. After all, the statue had been financed by the people of France. Representatives from Cleveland, Boston, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, San Francisco and other cities offered to pay the costs of the pedestal. But the generous offers had a condition: the statue had to be erected in the city that donated the money. In 1885, Bartholdi ordered the Statue of Liberty dismantled to 350 pieces, and packed in 214 wooden packing crates, weighing from a few hundred pounds to several tons each. The shipment arrived at Bedloe's Island on 15 June 1885. Two months later, the World announced that more than 120,000 individuals had donated to the project. They had collected a little over $100,000.

The Statue of Liberty was dedicated on a misty, cold 28 October 1886. More than a million people lined the streets to watch a grand military and civic parade that included Bartholdi and his wife. President Grover Cleveland boarded the USS Despatch along with other participants in the ceremony on Bedloe's Island. After leading a double column of about 300 tugs, yachts and excursion steamers, the Despatch anchored at the island alongside US and French warships. Vessels that had followed the Despatch carried their audiences to assigned positions around the island. Accidentally terminating the oration of a US Senator, Bartholdi tugged on a rope. A rain-soaked French tricolor covering fell from Lady Liberty's face, literally unveiling the statue.

Apparently the event did not please everyone. On November 1, the New York Times published a report from Paris that needled the English, who were "furious" over the goodwill evidenced by the Statue of Liberty. "France laughs at their fury," the reporter said, "which does not in the least interfere with the general satisfaction."

Phill Jones. The Story Behind Lady Liberty. . October/November 2008.

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