Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island Source: National Park Service

The Statue of Liberty was dedicated on October 28, 1886. The people of France gave the Statue to the people of the United States over one hundred years ago in recognition of the friendship established during the American Revolution. French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi was commissioned to design a sculpture with the year 1876 in mind for completion, to commemorate the centennial of the American Declaration of Independence.

The Statue was a joint effort between America and France. It was agreed that the French were responsible for the Statue and its assembly in the United States, and the United States was responsible for building the pedestal. France raised the funds to build the statue, but the United States found it difficult to pay for the pedestal. Tabloid newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer used his publication to help raise donations to build it. He collected change from schoolchildren and accused the city's richest residents of being cheap and unpatriotic. Pulitzer raised over $102,000 in five months, enough to finance the 154-foot-high concrete-and-granite pedestal.

The Statue became a symbol of hope and possibility for thousands of immigrants who were coming from all over the world to Ellis Island. More than 22 million passengers and members of ships' crews entered the United States through Ellis Island, which is directly across from Liberty Island in the lower New York Harbor. Ellis Island was incorporated as part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument on May 11, 1965. In 1903 when there was an extraordinary flood of immigrants to the United States, a poem by Emma Lazarus, entitled "The New Colossus," was added to the pedestal. It reads, "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!" (Emma Lazarus, 1883)

	Statue of Liberty – Detail Source: National Park Service

According to most historical sources, Bartholdi based Liberty's face on his mother, Charlotte. The tablet in Liberty's left hand is inscribed with July 4, 1776, the date that America declared independence from the British. Interestingly enough, it is the only distinctly American detail that Bartholdi put on the statue. In earlier versions, she was holding a broken chain, possibly referring to the end of slavery in the United States after the Civil War. Bartholdi enlisted the help of Alexandre Gustav Eiffel, the designer of the Parisian landmark the Eiffel Tower, to help keep the large copper statue standing without losing its shape. Eiffel devised the idea of an iron inner framework with bars conforming to Liberty's feminine shape.

Unfortunately, only the grounds of Liberty Island are open for visitation. The monument, museum, crown, and all monument observation decks have been closed since September 11, 2001, and are closed indefinitely to visitation—for security reasons—until further notice.

Additional Web Resources

National Geographic: The Light of Liberty
National Park Service-Statue of Liberty National Monument
PBS: The Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty Club
The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.
The Statue of Liberty Photo Tour
Travel Channel: American Icon-Lady Liberty

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