When Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, one of France’s most famous sculptors, first traveled to the United States to propose the construction of a giant tribute to liberty, Americans either rejected the idea or were baffled by it; building monuments wasn’t a priority in industrializing America. In 1877, Congress voted down a bill to help fund the statue; a few years later, Grover Cleveland, then the governor of New York, vetoed a modest appropriation of $50,000 to build the pedestal. Nevertheless, completed in 1886, the Statue of Liberty stands today as one of the best-known symbols of the United States and a beacon of freedom in New York Harbor. It was, ultimately, a gift from the French people to the American people, as private citizens, not the two governments, financed it from torch to toe.
To celebrate the nation’s semiquincentennial and the 140th anniversary of the statue’s completion, historian Edward Berenson illuminates the origins of Lady Liberty, examining the statue’s Egyptian, Greek, and Roman—as well as French Revolutionary—heritage. Next, Berenson delves into the complex process of the construction of this engineering marvel in Paris and New York. He then traces the statue’s shifting meaning, from Bartholdi’s original intent to symbolize the abolition of slavery to its eventual significance as a warm welcome to the “huddled masses” fleeing poverty and oppression in Europe. Finally, he examines her towering presence in film, advertising, popular literature, and political satire, from the final startling scene of Planet of the Apes (1968) to the Jumbotrons of the US Open tennis tournament.
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