The Statue of Liberty

Late spring/early summer has three very important, major holidays that occur in short order — Memorial Day, Juneteenth, and July 4th. Each of these holidays commemorates an important milestone in the journey for freedom and human rights for all Americans.

The Statue of Liberty is national monument with a remarkable story about resilience and tenacity. The monument was first imagined by Édouard de Laboulay, a French historian and anti-slavery activist. In France, he was an expert on the U.S. Constitution and the president of a committee formed at the end of the Civil War that raised and disbursed funds to America’s newly freed slaves.

In 1865, Laboulaye organized a meeting of French abolitionists to talk about creating something that would recognize the importance of the liberation of the slaves. An early model shows Lady Liberty with her right arm raised and holding a torch. In her left hand she held broken shackles to represent the end of slavery.

In the final model, Lady Liberty holds a tablet inscribed with the Roman numerals for July 4, 1776. The broken chains are still there, however they are almost hidden, just visible next to her feet.

By 1886, when the statue was was dedicated, Lady Liberty’s association to the abolition of slavery had been lost. Black newspapers actually viewed the statue as hypocritical — the Supreme Court had rolled back civil rights protections and Jim Crow laws were spreading around the country.

Although the Statue of Liberty is bursting with symbolism, what would Laboulaye think of our country today?

The Story of the Statue of Liberty – The Most Famous Statue in the World

Here are some key facts about the American nation’s most famous monument:

• 200,000 pounds (91,000 kg) of cooper were used to build the statue.
• Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi was the sculptor for the project and Gustave Eiffel was the engineer and architect for the underpinning that holds the monument together. The pedestal was designed by Richard Morris Hunt.
• The monument is a neoclassical sculpture. It draws inspiration from the Greco-Roman world (classical antiquity). The sculpture wears classically inspired draped clothing. Gestures and emotions in Neoclassical works are usually restrained to give priority to calm grandeur, spiritual nobility, and beauty.
• Lady Liberty wears a crown with seven rays of enlightenment on her head. The seven points symbolize the seven seas and the seven continents, as well as the rays of the sun.
• The face is consistent with the Greek depiction of a goddesses. There is a lack of concavity at the root of the nose, and the bridge of the nose is almost straight.
• The Statue of Liberty was dedicated on October 28, 1886 and it became a national monument in 1924.
• The green patina (verdigris) of the statue developed in the early part of the 20th century. Bartholdi suggested sheathing the statue in gold but the US Congress nixed this idea.
• Lady Liberty’s torch had a light house function. A duplicate torch was made during the statue’s renovation and the original torch is housed in the museum.
• Popular culture played a large role in defining the statue as a symbol of immigration.

The Statue of Liberty is Bartholdi’s best-known work, but his masterpiece among monumental projects is the Lion of Belfort, completed in 1880, which is carved out of red sandstone. See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_of_Belfort.

Joseph Pulitzer, along with French citizens, donated the funds for the sculpture. Common, every-day Americans donated funds to pay for the monument’s base. Two nations of individuals coming together to create a monument imbued with such powerful symbolism is noteworthy. May Lady Liberty continue to be a beacon for freedom.

Some social media users are circulating the premise that the Statue of Liberty was originally modeled after a Black woman. This claim is false.

While there isn’t a definitive answer to the question of whom the sculptor, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, used as a model, most historical sources say that the statue’s face was modeled after Bartholdi’s mother.

The computer-generated images of what the Statue of Liberty might look like if she were human were created by using Artificial Intelligence. Although these images are very realistic, they are not photographs of Bartholdi’s mother or Isabelle Boyer-Singer, Bartholdi’s wife.

According to rumor, Isabella Eugénie Boyer Winnaretta Singer (born in 1841) met and married Bartholdi, who would later use her image as partial inspiration for his sculpture. Most sources agree that Bartholdi’s mother served as the inspiration for the face and his wife for the torso. Neither of these women was Black.

The History of the Statue of Liberty – for Kids

Famous World Landmarks for Kids: The Statue of Liberty