Yasmin Sabina Khan

Introduction

Sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi at the foot of the Statue of Liberty in Paris. The statue was temporarily erected in Paris to be certain that nothing had been overlooked. The iron support frame and the 310 copper sheets that formed the statue were then marked for easier reassembly, the statue disassembled, all parts packed into large wooden crates and transported by ship to Bedloe’s Island (now called Liberty Island), where the statue was permanently erected.

Chapter 1: The Idea

It was in the summer following the end of the American Civil War that Édouard Laboulaye, an ardent admirer of the United States, proposed the idea of a monument “built by united effort . . . a common work of both nations,” France and the United States. A tradition of friendship had been established during the American Revolution. During the American Civil War many people in France admired President Abraham Lincoln and closely followed events of the war.

Chapter 2: A Champion of Liberty

In his only novel, titled Paris en Amérique, Édouard-René Lefebvre de Laboulaye transported himself, a French man, to the fictional “Paris, Massachusetts.” The story concludes on this note: “One is never cured of a yearning for freedom.”

Chapter 3: Bonds of Friendship

The young Marquis de Lafayette became a hero of the American War for Independence and a “connecting link” between the French and American people. His friendship with General George Washington was widely likened to that of father and son.

Chapter 4: The French Sculptor

Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, sculptor of the Statue of Liberty. Bartholdi’s steadfast dedication turned the dream of a statue into a reality. It was a 21-year journey from conception to unveiling.

Chapter 5: Bartholdi’s Tour of America and the American Architect

During his visit to Philadelphia Bartholdi was invited to the Union League of Philadelphia, where this painting of President Abraham Lincoln as the Great Emancipator was on display. Lincoln is shown with the Proclamation of Emancipation, which he has just signed, along with a liberty statue. By including only the lower part of “Liberty” the painter focuses attention on the broken chain of slavery.

Chapter 6: Washington, D.C., as a National Symbol

Liberty has always been a favored theme in the United States, as shown here in “Liberty and the Eagle” at the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Chapter 7: Bartholdi’s Design

Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s 4-foot-high model was used to create the 151-foot-tall statue!

Chapter 8: The Statue Takes Shape

Refining the statue’s left hand at full scale.

Chapter 9: The American Committee and the French Engineers

Gustave Eiffel was responsible for the design of the freestanding truss tower of unprecedented height that supports the statue.  This support tower was seen as a forerunner of the Eiffel Tower, designed a few years later.

Chapter 10: Hunt Designs a Pedestal

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The pedestal for the statue features a porch, or “loggia,” design. This was very likely intended to recall the porch where George Washington was inaugurated the nation’s first president. In his inaugural address Washington referred to the “sacred fire of liberty . . . entrusted to the hands of the American people.”

Chapter 11: Fundraising and a Visionary Sonnet

Emma Lazarus’s sonnet “The New Colossus” offers compassion and hope to all people looking to start a new life, all who are “yearning to breathe free.” The story behind the poem is told in this chapter.

The Statue of Liberty was officially presented to the United States when it was standing in Paris, on July 4, 1884. The statue remained in Paris longer than originally intended because of construction delays in the United States.

Chapter 12: The Unveiling

Twenty one years after Édouard Laboulaye first suggested a monument to liberty, Liberty Enlightening the World was unveiled in New York Harbor on October 28, 1886.