Give Me Your Tired...

The Statue of Liberty is one of the most well-known images around the world. Ever since 1886, her light has welcomed immigrants to America, a country born from the revolution of English colonists aided by the French. Lady Liberty was a gift to the American people by the French, who themselves had a revolution after the American Revolution. 

Photo: Hilary Grabowska

The story goes that French law professor Édouard René de Laboulaye stated in 1865 that if there were to be a memorial in America for independence, it would have to be a united effort between the two nations. Whether he said this or not, it was indeed a united effort. 

Photo: www.nps.gov

Frédéric Aguste Bartholdi designed the Statue of Liberty in the neoclassical style after the Roman goddess of freedom, Libertas, and it very much resembles descriptions of the lost Colossus of Rhodes. In 1871, Bartholdi visited America and selected an island in the Hudson called Bedloe's as the future location.

Photo: Hilary Grabowska

The French financed, designed and built the statue while the Americans provided the location and built the pedestal, and on October 28, 1886, the statue was dedicated by President Cleveland. At the time, the statue was meant to pay tribute to democracy and independence, not to immigrants. It was the immigrants themselves who made Lady Liberty a universal symbol, and then in 1903 The New Colossus poem by Emma Lazarus was dedicated, cementing the image of Lady Liberty as the beacon for newly arrived immigrants. 

Photo: www.uh.edu

The Statue of Liberty, along with Ellis Island, is a National Park and has been since the 1930s. Visitors take a boat out to see her and when they depart Liberty Island for Ellis Island, visitors witness what the immigrants who came through Ellis Island witnessed: Lady Liberty shining through the darkness, welcoming them home to a land of opportunity. 

Photo: Hilary Grabowska