The World's Most Belated Belated Birthday Gift
They say it's your birthday...
Who doesn’t love a birthday gift, especially a belated one? We don’t know the exact birthday of the publication but heck, if you bring us a present any day of the year, you’re welcome downstairs whenever you’d like. We’re pretty loose on deadlines, so it would probably be hypocritical of us to demand our birthday gifts on time. Acually we do remember our birthday. September 4th for those wondering. But we get it, sometimes people lose track of time or maybe you’re just not around when the special day comes. Apparently, this isn’t exclusive among people, but countries as well.
The 17th of June is recognized as the day the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York Harbor, a pretty big deal around these parts. Although some reports differ, it’s said that in the mid-1860s our French friends across the pond must’ve taken a look at the calendar and realized we were about a decade out from the 100th anniversary of the United States claiming independence from the British. Given the strong relationship between the two countries and America’s assistance in the French Revolution, Edouard de Laboulaye proposed the idea of creating a monument to commemorate the centennial anniversary in the states. Most projects tend to run smoother with a friend, so naturally Edouard recruited sculptor and fellow advocate of America, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi to help see the project to fruition. That’s about where the smooth road ends for the two.
Facing a number of different challenges, delays quickly began to pile up for our French fellows. Without much support from federal funding, much of the fundraising had to be done independently, which took longer than the duo anticipated. Priorities shifted as the Franco-Prussian War delayed things even further from 1870 to 1871. When the project resumed, logistical tests followed as well. We have to remember this is not the days of airplanes and expedited shipping, but shipping in the literal sense. You know, with ships and water and propellers and stuff. How the hell were they planning to send a statue of over 150 feet across the Atlantic Ocean? What materials would be used? And perhaps most important, what would this thing even look like? Design after design, approvals and disapprovals, the statue we’ve come to know was finally settled and construction begin in 1875, roughly a decade after the idea was first introduced.
Although the statue remained unfinished by the time 1876 rolled around, the men in France were able to complete the torch-wielding right hand of Lady Liberty just in time for the United States’ centennial celebrations. Split between Philadelphia and New York, a preview of the monument to come was displayed for the American people. As completed sections of the statue began to rise back in Paris, Laboulay and Bartholdi searched high and low for an engineer to oversee construction. Someone who would ensure the statue could endure the elements like wind, hurricanes, or 30 consecutive weekends of rain, a staggering phenomenon we find ourselves in as we speak. The men settled on an engineer named Gustave. Someone you may better recognize by his last name. Prior to his work on the Eiffel Tower, Gustave Eiffel engineered a state-of-the-art iron framework for the interior of Lady Liberty. That framework later influenced his tower for the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris. Big monument guy.
The Statue of Liberty, originally named Liberty Enlightening the World, finally arrived in New York City from France on this day in 1885, about 20 years after Laboulaye’s mental lightbulb flashed and a decade after the United States celebrated 100 years of freedom. Since its arrival, the Statue of Liberty has gone on to symbolize many different things to many different people. Along with the engraved tablet recognizing America’s date of independence on July 4th, 1776, the broken shackles at Lady Liberty’s feet symbolize the abolition of slavery, which our country had been striving toward leading up to the project’s start. Later on at the turn of the century, the statue was closely associated with immigration and the arrival of millions of people in the United States, symbolizing a new beginning and that scene from the Godfather II.
Given that Liberty Island is just a quick swim from Ellis Island, the statue and her torch were the first sight of many within the country’s borders. Seeing as Lady Liberty had grown synonymous with immigration, a plaque on the statue’s pedestal was inserted just a few years later reading, “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!” A message that is increasingly relevant in the environment we find ourselves in today. Goes to show that even the latest birthday gifts can mean the most.
P.S. Watch this short film from the New York Times for a look into a once-abandoned Ellis Island. You can see the green lady with the torch and crown in the background.
