Celebrating enlightenment and liberty

Courtesy National Park Service.

Did you know that the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor was dedicated on Oct. 28, 1886? The Lady is so iconic that it's hard to imagine a time when she was not there.

The statue sits on Liberty Island (formerly Bedloe's Island) in the Hudson River, not far from where it dumps into the Atlantic Ocean. The island is actually on the New Jersey side of the river, not the New York side, but the island itself is considered part of New York.

Liberty Enlightening the World is the work of French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, who completed the statue as a gift from the French people to honor the end of American slavery and the 1876 American independence centennial. Indeed, the French people raised more than 1 million francs for its building. While Bartholdi designed the exterior, Alexandre-Gustave Eiffle (yes, that Eiffle) designed the internal framework, a flexible and complex set of trusses and girders to which the Lady's copper skin was attached. The flexible design was critical since the statue had to withstand high winds from the harbor. Interestingly, in 1982, it was discovered that one of the head rays was wearing a hole in the right arm due to the statue's movement. (More about restoration later.)

On June 17, 1885, a French steamer arrived in New York with 214 crates holding the disassembled statue on board. But before she could be erected, the foundation pedestal had to be completed. Fundraising and building had begun in 1882, but was so lackluster that when the statue arrived, the pedestal was nowhere near completion. In March 1885, Joseph Pulitzer (yes, that Pulitzer), publisher of the New York World newspaper announced a drive to raise $100,000 ($3.3 million in 2023 dollars) to finish the pedestal.

Courtesy National Park Service.

"We must raise the money!" he said. "The World is the people's paper, and now it appeals to the people to come forward and raise the money...the making of the Statue cost was paid in by the masses of the French people - by the working men, the tradesmen, the shop girls, the artisans- by all, irrespective of class or condition. Let us respond in like manner. Let us not wait for the millionaires to give us this money. It is not a gift from the millionaires of France to the millionaires of America, but a gift of the whole people of France to the whole people of America."

The American people responded. Pulitzer printed the name of every single person who donated, and he included many of the notes that accompanied the donations:

"A young girl alone in the world" donated "60 cents, the result of self-denial." One donor gave "five cents as a poor office boy's mite toward the Pedestal Fund." A group of children sent a dollar as "the money we saved to go to the circus with." Another dollar was given by a "lonely and very aged woman."

By April 1886, the pedestal was finished and reassembly of Lady Liberty began. Six months later, on Oct. 28, 1886, the statue was formally dedicated to the people of the United States and the torch lit for the very first time.

When she was dedicated, Lady Liberty was meant to be a symbol of enlightenment – using reason to understand and improve the human condition. For example, the broken shackle at her feet represents the abolishment of slavery. But she soon came to represent liberty itself.

Between 1886 and 1954, almost 14 million people came to the United States via Ellis Island, located about three-quarters of a mile from the Statue of Liberty. For millions the Lady was the first thing they saw upon arrival in their new home. She was an enormous, powerful symbol of the freedom they sought in coming here. In her 1883 poem dedicated to the statue, poet Emma Lazarus wrote:

"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."

Interestingly, it wasn't until 1903 that a plaque with Lazarus's poem was placed on the inner wall of the pedestal.

Originally, Lady Liberty was a dull copper color, but by 1906 she was covered by a green patina caused by oxidation of her copper skin. Congress thought this was due to corrosion and authorized repairs including painting of the statue both inside and out. The Army Corps of Engineers studied the patina and decided that it actually protected her skin and "made the statue beautiful."

In preparation for Lady Liberty's 1986 centennial, she was examined in detail by both French and American engineers, who decided she needed extensive repairs. The right arm was improperly attached to the main structure and the head was off center by more than two feet so one of the rays was wearing a hole in the right arm (as mentioned earlier). Layers and layers of paint and coal tar that had been applied to the interior copper skin to prevent erosion actually only hid the damage. Paint layers were removed with liquid nitrogen and the coal tar layers were blasted off with baking soda. Larger holes in the copper skin were repaired, and "new" copper skin was taken from a copper rooftop at Bell Labs (in New Jersey), which had a patina that closely resembled the statues. The torch, which had been leaking since a 1916 addition of stained glass, was replaced with an exact replica of Bartholdi's original torch except that it is covered in 24-karat gold which reflects the sun's rays in the daytime and the floodlights at night.

Liberty Weekend (July 3-6, 1986), was a four-day celebration of the Lady's centennial and restoration. Both French President Francois Mitterand and American President Ronald Reagan spoke. Composer John Williams wrote and conducted the "Liberty Fanfare." The gala included fireworks, air ships, naval ships and the largest flotilla of tall ships to assemble in modern history.

Turns out there are hundreds of replicas of the statue around the world, including several here in the United States. But ultimately, there is only one Statue of Liberty, standing tall and proud, in good times and bad, showing the world that we are enlightened and free.