Who Thought of the Statue of Liberty?

The Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor has come to be a welcoming beacon to immigrants. Officially called “Liberty Enlightening the World,” the statue was a gift from the French people to the citizens of the United States in 1886. Both countries believed in democracy, and the colossus was to celebrate a century of American independence from Britain that the French helped achieve.

One Frenchman wrote: “Her presence above the port of New York will not allow Americans to forget that they have never had a friend more faithful and devoted than France.”

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Digging Deeper Into the Story

While the statue was, indeed, a gift from France, the details of the “origin” story are deeper and more inspirational than those simple basic facts. At heart, the gift of the colossal statue was the dream of one French sculptor—Fre̒de̒ric Auguste Bartholdi.

French politician E̒douard Rene̒ de Laboulaye had a dinner party at his home in France in 1865, and Bartholdi was among the guests. Laboulaye noted the long relationship between the United States and France. He mentioned that when the American centennial was celebrated in 1876, the French should be part of it.

After all, Gilbert de Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette, joined the colonists to fight in the Revolution under George Washington. Later, he brought in badly needed French military aid to help win America’s freedom from Great Britain.

Laboulaye mused that perhaps the French people should give a gift to America in celebration of the friendship of the two countries and their joint belief in democratic ideals.

Bartholdi left the dinner party thinking about this.

Who Was Fre̒de̒ric Auguste Bartholdi?

Bartholdi was born in 1834 in Colmar, in the northeastern corner of France near the German border. He was the youngest of four children; one of only two to survive to adulthood. His father died when Bartholdi was a toddler, so his mother Charlotte was left to raise two sons alone.

When Bartholdi was nine, his mother decided the boys would get a better education if they moved to Paris. Despite the social unrest in the city at that time, Charlotte Bartholdi moved and soon had her boys enrolled at the Lyce̒e Louis-le-Grand.  The school was highly regarded, and her sons were exposed to the best instructors in France. According to Elizabeth Mitchell’s book Liberty’s Torch, they returned to Colmar frequently, so the family always considered it “home.”

Bartholdi, Artist

While the elder son Jean-Charles studied law, Auguste Bartholdi was drawn to art—a fascination that his mother highly approved of. He began as a painter, but quickly shifted to sculpture. He was only 20 when he received his first commission—a large bronze statue of Napoleonic General Jean Rapp.

As he stepped into the art world, he was invited to travel to Egypt with a group of artists. A French company received a 99-year contract to build and maintain the Suez Canal.  While the canal was still under construction, the artists were given a tour of the site and also were taken to see the pyramids. While touring the art from ancient Egypt, Bartholdi admired the Egyptian method of building on a colossal scale.

While there, he talked to the administrators overseeing the canal. He sketched out a godlike colossal statue that he suggested he could build to serve as a lighthouse to guide ships into the mouth of the canal.

No one at the Suez Canal Company took him up on it, so Bartholdi returned to France to pursue other work.

War in France

Napoleon III (1808-1873), emperor of France from 1852-1870, wanted to cement a good relationship with Britain. To do so, he determined to assert his dominance in continental Europe. This led to France taking on Prussia in July of 1870 in what is now known as the Franco-Prussian War.

Like most Frenchmen, Bartholdi was expected to fight. He was fortunate to be in Colmar when the war started, so he enlisted and fought there. While he participated in the battles in the area, he also took some latitude, stopping to sketch scenes that intrigued him.

The war lasted about 6 months, but the political upheaval continued. Bartholdi did not want to return to Paris because of the political tension. He had never been to America, so he discussed with his mentor E̒douard de Laboulaye about visiting the United States.

After Bartholdi’s trip to Egypt, he couldn’t give up his dream of building a colossal statue. He discussed with de Laboulaye the idea of designing and building it as France’s gift to America. A trip to the United States would give Bartholdi an opportunity to survey the northeast part of the country, and perhaps meet with some of Laboulaye’s American contacts who might consider help with funding.

As time passed, Bartholdi’s thoughts were coming into focus. He imagined a godlike colossus that would measure 150-175 feet (50-75 meters or approximately 15 stories high) plus an equally tall base.

This would take money, and of course, the right location needed to be found.

Where Should a Colossus Be Built?

As his ship glided into New York harbor in 1871, Bartholdi observed some of the islands that dotted the harbor. But he didn’t want to be hasty. Central Park was still under construction (1857-1876). He heard so much about the plans laid out by Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux’s that he was eager to see the area.

As he toured the city, he noted that Battery Park might be a good location for his grand project. His visit to Central Park, however, made him realize it was not right. Though Bartholdi was impressed by the park’s beauty and size, he saw that what he had in mind would dwarf the park’s trees. He kept looking.

Eventually, he circled back to his initial idea of erecting the statue in the harbor. Just as he thought a lighthouse could have worked well near the Suez Canal, he realized that a lighthouse might be helpful in New York harbor as well.

As ship captains took him around the harbor, he specifically liked Bedloe Island. It was isolated, but ships couldn’t help but pass it on their way into New York. It was already government-controlled, as the military had built Fort Wood, a star-shaped fort there in the early 1800s.

To Bartholdi, it suited his purposes. It was visible and welcoming, and when the island was properly wired, the statue could serve as a lighthouse for the harbor.

Meeting Funders

Laboulaye and Bartholdi talked about how to fund such a massive project. They concluded that if the people of France would donate money for Bartholdi to create the sculpture, they could propose to the United States that America could pay for the base.  

E̒douard de Laboulaye provided Bartholdi with letters of introduction to influential people in New York to approach for money.

Laboulaye also connected the sculptor to President Ulysses S. Grant. Grant was at his Summer White House while the sculptor was in New York, so Bartholdi paid a call on the President at his beach house in Long Branch, New Jersey.

From the description of the visit in Elizabeth Mitchell’s book, Liberty’s Torch, Grant was friendly and encouraging. However, the sculptor visited with only a sketch and he had yet to raise any money. With that information, it sounded as if Grant’s response was a bit of the “Yes, yes. Sure, sure. Let’s keep in touch” variety. Why say “no” when this seemed like no more than a pipe dream of the Frenchman?  

But Bartholdi took Grant’s nod as a positive, and he went on to get in touch with Laboulaye’s contacts who might help pay for the statue’s base.

Eventually, committees to support what Bartholdi was calling “Liberty Enlightening the World,” existed on both sides of the Atlantic.

Returning Home

While in the United States. Bartholdi lined up a couple of art commissions for himself. He needed to keep his own studio busy to have time and money for this dream job.

Though de la Boulaye and Bartholdi originally hoped the statue might be completed by 1876—the true centennial—the process of locating funding was much slower than Bartholdi could have imagined. The financial panic of 1873 triggered economic chaos and alarms in the United States and abroad. No one felt they had extra money to give.

Tide Turning

Economic circumstances improved slowly, and in 1875,E̒douard de Laboulaye created the French-American Union in Paris. The group consisted of some of his wealthy friends.

The committee began public outreach in France. Descendants of officers who fought in the American Revolution (including relatives of Lafayette) responded with donations, and a metal company donated copper sheets to use to cover the statue.

The Torch and Arm Displayed

As 1876 approached, Bartholdi knew he needed to capitalize on the celebrations of the centennial by establishing sculptures that would depict that the project underway. For America, he completed the arm and torch that stretched 42 feet into the air. It was sent to the Centennial International Exposition in Philadelphia. The impressively sculpted arm was displayed there and in Madison Square Garden in New York. In both locations, admission was charged for people to visit the torch and climb up the stairs to see the view.

In Paris, he developed a similar plan. The head and shoulders of Lady Liberty were put on display in a park in Paris. Money was raised through ticket sales.

But as with everything, Bartholdi’s costs kept rising. The French-American Union decided to hold a lottery. Merchants in Paris donated prizes, and tickets were sold. Bartholdi sold miniatures of the statue, and later, he realized people would buy tickets to come into his studio to watch him work.

Finally, by July of 1880, the Union announced that they had enough money to complete the statue.

Pedestal Funding Was Also Slow

The American Committee for the Statue of Liberty also struggled. The base was expected to cost about $250,000, and ticket sales to enter the torch and the few donations that dribbled in were not impressive.  Ladies’ organizations in several cities put together “entertainments” with the ticket sales being donated to the fund for the statue’s base, but all in all, funding was not going well.

At some point, a good press agent circulated the idea that if the money for a pedestal in New York wasn’t raised soon, then perhaps another city—maybe Boston—would receive the statue instead.

That inspired additional giving.

Joseph Pulitzer Steps In

Newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer purchased The World, a New York City daily, in 1883. He feared New York—and America—would be embarrassed if they couldn’t raise the money for the pedestal. He took up the cause.

His plan—spelled out in his newspaper–was that no matter how small the gift, he would print the name of each donor in his newspaper. The response was strong. Thousands of people across the country sent in small donations. Schoolchildren collected pennies and sent their coins in with the names of the students in their class. That way everyone could be mentioned.

Slowly, the money came in. 

Statue Underway

In the meantime, Bartholdi and his staff were working hard on the statue. They completed the lower portion of the colossus but were then stymied by how to create a statue that stood tall, holding her right arm high.

As Bartholdi puzzled through this problem, he recalled a man he met on the Egyptian tour—Gustav Eiffel. Eiffel was young and had not yet completed many projects—certainly not the Tower for which he is now known. When Bartholdi approached him and described what he needed, Eiffel was ready to help out.

Eiffel ably figured out a way to build an iron form for the upper body and then connect it to the existing lower body that Bartholdi sculpted. Eiffel’s framework would provide structure for her upper body. Her head and her arm holding the torch could be held high.

From there, Bartholdi was able to sculpt the final product.

Presented in France

In Paris, on July 4, 1884, the fully complete statue was presented to the U.S. minister of France, Levi P. Morton, a businessman and former member of the House of Representatives (who went on to be vice-president to Benjamin Harrison). The statue remained on view in France for the people to appreciate as well.

Then the colossal statue was completely disassembled. Working under Bartholdi, men carefully organized and labeled the boxes so that it could be put together in in America. The French Navy ship Isère was to take it across the water.   

And On Bedloe Island

Work on the pedestal to be erected on the 14-acre Bedloe Island was proceeding slowly. As it happened, the boxes and boxes (220 of them) arrived from France several months before the construction of the base was fully underway. But the appearance of the French Navy ship with the disassembled statue stirred great excitement in America.

Suddenly, people realized this colossus was going to exist.  

The Isère steamed into port on June 17, 1885. Two hundred thousand people lined the docks, and hundreds of boats put to sea to welcome the French ship.

Unloading the Ship

As the sailors unloaded their precious cargo on Bedloe Island, the workers there saw that the boxes were all carefully numbered and labeled. Bartholdi’s plan was that Americans would be in charge of everything from here on out. 

But as the work on the base continued, snow and rain covered many of the boxes. Some of the labels were now very difficult to read.

Nine months after the boxes were unloaded, the pedestal was finished. From there, the jigsaw puzzle effort of assembling the statue began. Because many of the notations on the boxes had washed off, much of the assembly had to be done by trial and error.

In her book Liberty’s Torch, Elizabeth Mitchell wrote that sometimes the men had to experiment with twenty different pieces to find the right one. As the men worked their way up the statue, the work became more and more difficult. There was no good way to create safe platforms for the upper portions of the statue.

But victory was achieved. By late summer of 1886, the statue was fully assembled and firmly sitting on her new base.

Electrifying the Island

Bartholdi’s original offer to Egypt suggested that the colossus he could build for them would be a lighthouse, guiding the way into the Suez Canal. Once he settled on the harbor location in America, he pursued the idea of “Liberty Enlightening the World” serving as a lighthouse, too.

This also solved a problem for the United States. The government needed some department to take charge of this unexpected gift. If it was a lighthouse, then the United States Lighthouse Board could take charge.

The Lighthouse Board–Not Enthusiastic

While this seemed to outsiders like a decent plan, the Lighthouse Board was not thrilled. For sailing vessels and the people on them, lighthouses made the difference between life and death. As a result, the Board preferred to choose the locations and lighting design for the lighthouses they supervised. With the arrival of this unasked-for statue, the Lighthouse Board had no control over any of this.

Bartholdi was a sculptor with no engineering background, so his suggestion that lights should surround the base of the statue had little merit for anything other than possibly lighting the statue.

The Army Corps of Engineers vetoed the plan when they heard about it. Based on the height of the pedestal, their opinion was that with lights beaming out from the base, ship captains would be blinded by the glare as they guided their vessels into the harbor.

Finishing Up

With no input from the engineers, Bartholdi proceeded with his back-up plan. He ordered his men to cut “portholes” around the upper portion of the torch. Lights would be placed there.

Electrification was very new in the 1880s, Thomas Edison and other electrical companies were vying for  the opportunity to electrify Manhattan. Electric lights within houses were beginning to be used by the very rich, but it was all neighborhood by neighborhood.

For the statue, electrical pioneer James J. Wood of the American Electric Manufacturing Company was hired to work out the lighting. He chose arc lighting (a type of lighting that could light a broad area using low voltage wire) as the main component. It was powered by a dynamo (generator) donated by Wood’s company.

The island also needed to be cleaned up and landscaped after the years of ongoing work.  Frederick Law Olmstead’s company was hired for the job.

Dedication: October 28, 1886

The ceremony on Bedloe Island wase main focus of the day, but there were many other events planned. On the rainy morning of October 28, a parade was held in New York City. The parade began at Madison Square (the venue for the arm and torch when it was on display in the city). The procession took a slight detour on the way to the Battery to march past Pulitzer’s newspaper office, The World. This was a tip of the hat to Pulitzer’s successful efforts to raise money for the pedestal. 

The Manhattan events were particularly important, because the guest list for Bedloe Island was very limited. Only dignitaries were permitted on the island—no members of the public. (This meant no women, with the exception of Bartholdi’s wife and the French diplomat’s granddaughter.)

Those rules could not prevent people circling the island by boat. One boat had been rented by suffragists who were deeply offended by the gender bias.

Nautical Parade

The program was carefully planned, and dignitaries from Washington and New York traveled by yacht to Bedloe, included President Cleveland who was to give the opening remarks. Ferdinand de Lesseps, the diplomat representing France, also spoke as did Senator William M. Evarts who helped with fundraising. Bartholdi was on the dais and was invited to speak but declined, so the program was turned over to orator Chauncey M. Depew, He concluded the speechmaking with a lengthy address, which was the style of the day.

Unfortunately for all, it rained throughout most of the day. The scheduled firework displays were delayed, but the lights in the torch were illuminated after dark. Even The World newspaper, who had championed the whole project, noted that the illumination was very weak. The reporter wrote that the light from the torch was more like a “glowworm than a beacon.”

So Now What?

For the next few days, public interest remained strong. The New York Times wrote that on October 29, 1886, two steamers shuttled back and forth from a dock near Battery Park to the dock on Bedloe Island. That day, there were 2000 visitors.

But as the autumn weather cooled and the publicity died down, so too did interest in the statue.

In 1887, the U.S. Lighthouse Board officially took over the Statue of Liberty. They immediately began to examine the lighting and how it could be improved.

Even after the lighting was redone, the Statue remained almost invisible at night. Use of electricity was still in its infancy, so there was little to do but wait for improvements.

No one really knew what to do with the statue at that point. If it wasn’t a lighthouse, what was it?

In 1901, President Teddy Roosevelt decided the best option was to transfer custody of the Statue to the War Department.  A unit of the Army Signal Corps was stationed there until 1923.

Ellis Island Nearby

In the meantime, an immigrant processing station was established on nearby Ellis Island. This reinforced the original intent that the statue would welcome the world. “Liberty Enlightening the World” continued to impress travelers who arrived by ship in the daytime.

What was missing on Bedloe Island were visitors. No one had given thought as to how to make it a tourist attraction.  

Next Steps

But there were New Yorkers who worried about it. Georgina Schuyler (1841-1923) was a composer and a well-connected New Yorker who was among those who raised money for the pedestal. The auction, held to solicit funds, was one of the projects she had worked on. Many types of donations were auctioned off including a significant poem written for the occasion of the gift of the Statue of Liberty.

Poet Emma Lazarus, whose family had emigrated from Portugal to the United States, was a friend of Schuyler’s. Lazarus (1849-1887) met with career success and her poetry was being published in places like the New York Times. From a Jewish family herself, Lazarus often wrote about persecution of Jews in Europe and the growing anti-Semitism in the United States.

Lazarus was asked to write a fitting poem that could be auctioned to raise money for the pedestal. She submitted “The New Colossus” for the auction.

She died at the age of 38, but Schuyler often thumbed through her poetry books as she loved Emma’s work. In 1901, Schuyler re-read the poem, “The New Colossus.” 

Schuyler flashed on a new way to explain the Statue of Liberty.   

Poem’s Lines That Said it All

The full text of The New Colossus can be read here, the lines that gripped Georgina Schuyler were these:

….From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips.

“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!”

What if a plaque with the poem was added to the Statue of Liberty? This would reinforce the statue’s role as one offering a world-wide welcome.

And About Ellis Island

Until 1890, states regulated the arrival of immigrants to their own state. For New York, the headquarters was Castle Garden in the Battery of New York. With increasing social and economic distress in Europe, an ever-growing number of immigrants arrived in New York. The city was overwhelmed.

At this point, the national government stepped in with a solution. Immigrants would be processed through a federal entity. The government took over Ellis Island, which was located very close to Bedloe Island. After building an immigrant-receiving station, they were ready to begin receiving immigrants on Ellis Island by 1890.

Funding the Plaque

Georgina Schuyler moved forward with her idea for adding a plaque with the poem to the base of the statue. She contacted her good friend, Richard Watson Gilder, the editor of the prestigious Century Magazine, about her idea for his help on funding.

By 1905, the money was raised, the plaque created, and a ceremony was held to unveil the poem. This breathed new life into Bedloe Island. There was renewed interest in tourism with the publicity surrounding the poem.

Government Brainstorm

When it appeared that the U.S. would be entering World War I, the press department in the government needed to start “selling the war.” The Statue of Liberty became a recruitment tool, emphasizing immigrant loyalty.  Bonds were sold with the Statue’s image …and recruitment posters were churned out.

By 1924, the Statue of Liberty was so much a part of the country that it was named a national monument. And in 1956, an Act of Congress changed the name of Bedloe Island to Liberty Island.

Today more than 3.5 million people visit each year.  

For information on visiting the Statue of Liberty, visit the National Park Service site: Statue of Liberty.

***This article began as a labor of love for my seven-year-old granddaughter Eve. In New York City schools, the second graders study New York landmarks. I researched the story behind the Statue of Liberty to present to her Girl Scout Troop and later, to her second grade class. Thank you, Eve, for inspiring me.

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