Statue History

S t a t u e H i s t o r y

The idea of creating the Statue of Liberty began in France at a dinner party hosted by Edouard Rene Lefebvre Laboulaye, a scholar. Laboulaye and Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, a sculptor, began to discuss the idea of presenting the United States with a monument to memorialize independence and human liberty.

Bartholdi sailed from France to New York on June 8, 1871, to propose the building of the statue to honor the friendship between France and the United States.

As the ship pulled into New York Harbor, Bartholdi spotted the perfect location, Bedloe’s Island. In 1956, the official name of the island was changed to Liberty Island.

During his trip to the United States, he met with U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, an American poet; Horace Greeley, a New York editor and politician; and others. Bartholdi traveled across the United States carrying a sketch of the statue and a small model. Everyone was receptive, but financial backing was difficult to find.

In 1874, the Third Republic was formed in France, and Laboulaye and Bartholdi knew the time was right to begin the statue. France would pay for the statue and America would pay for the pedestal and foundation.

Bartholdi decided that repoussé, a technique to hammer sheet metal inside molds, was the best way to create the outside shell of the statue. The shell is made of 31 tons of copper.

Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel designed the statue’s intricate steel skeleton. The total weight of the steel is 125 tons. Later in 1889, he unveiled the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.

In June 1884, the statue was finished. The Statue of Liberty’s index finger extends 8 feet and her arm is 42 feet long. From her heel to her head, she stands just over 111 feet. Her mouth is 3 feet wide. She carries a tablet that is 2 feet thick.

Joseph Pulitzer, a Hungarian immigrant and a journalist and owner of newspapers such as World and St. Louis Post-Dispatch, saw the opportunity to raise money to build the statue’s pedestal and raise circulation for his newspapers.

Packed in 214 crates, the Statue of Liberty arrived in America on June 15, 1885.

In an effort to appeal to readers, Pulitzer promised that every contributor’s name would be published in the newspaper no matter how much money was given. On Aug. 11, 1885, Pulitzer announced in the World that $100,000 had been raised with donations coming from more than 120,000 individuals. Circulation for his newspapers increased by 50,000 readers. In 1917, six years after Pulitzer’s death, the first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded for excellence in journalism, literature and drama.

Richard Morris Hunt designed the pedestal that sits on a concrete foundation. The foundation is made of 24,000 tons of concrete, and from there, the pedestal rises an additional 89 feet.

To reach the statue’s crown, one must climb 354 steps, equivalent to a 22-story building. There 25 windows in the crown to represent the gemstones found on Earth. The seven rays of the statue’s crown represent the seven seas and seven continents of the world.

It took six months to assemble the statue at its new home. Oct. 28, 1886, was declared a public holiday to allow Americans to celebrate the statue’s unveiling. More than 1 million people lined the streets for a parade.

Workers at Wall Street were the only ones working that day, and as the parade of 20,000 passed through the financial district, workers unreeled spools of ticker tape out of their office windows. The first-ever ticker-tape parade was born.

Standing 305 feet in the air, the Statue of Liberty was New York’s tallest structure until 1899 when Saint Paul’s Building was built at 310 feet.

The Lighthouse Board, the Army and American Committee and the War Department maintained care for the statue. In 1924, U.S. President Calvin Coolidge declared the Statue of Liberty to be a national monument. Since 1933, the National Park Service has maintained the care of the statue.

In 1981, the National Park Service determined that the Statue of Liberty was in need of restoration. The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation raised $295 million. The foundation set aside $86 million to restore the statue.

On July 4, 1986, U.S President Ronald Reagan unveiled the restored statue against a backdrop of fireworks. More than 1.5 billion television viewers around the world watched the ceremony.