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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Statue of Liberty was such a fine gift to the United States from the People of France.
This post originates from a random thought but the Statue of Liberty is as American / patriotically wholesome as can get and also that the People of France are such good friends, our histories and the best of our national values are so interlocked and share ideological much of the best of human society.
So share your thoughts and don't leave out kudos to the French.
The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World; French: La Liberté éclairant le monde) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York, in the United States. The copper statue, a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States, was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and its metal framework was built by Gustave Eiffel. The statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886.
The Statue of Liberty is a figure of Libertas, a robed Roman liberty goddess. She holds a torch above her head with her right hand, and in her left hand carries a tabula ansata inscribed in Roman numerals with "JULY IV MDCCLXXVI" (July 4, 1776), the date of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. A broken shackle and chain lie at her feet as she walks forward, commemorating the recent national abolition of slavery.[7] The statue became an icon of freedom and of the United States, and a national park tourism destination. It is a welcoming sight to immigrants arriving from abroad.
Bartholdi was inspired by a French law professor and politician, Édouard René de Laboulaye, who is said to have commented in 1865 that any monument raised to U.S. independence would properly be a joint project of the French and U.S. peoples. Because of the post-war instability in France, work on the statue did not commence until the early 1870s. In 1875, Laboulaye proposed that the French finance the statue and the U.S. provide the site and build the pedestal. Bartholdi completed the head and the torch-bearing arm before the statue was fully designed, and these pieces were exhibited for publicity at international expositions.
The torch-bearing arm was displayed at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, and in Madison Square Park in Manhattan from 1876 to 1882. Fundraising proved difficult, especially for the Americans, and by 1885 work on the pedestal was threatened by lack of funds. Publisher Joseph Pulitzer, of the New York World, started a drive for donations to finish the project and attracted more than 120,000 contributors, most of whom gave less than a dollar. The statue was built in France, shipped overseas in crates, and assembled on the completed pedestal on what was then called Bedloe's Island. The statue's completion was marked by New York's first ticker-tape parade and a dedication ceremony presided over by President Grover Cleveland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Liberty
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,683 posts)We're not really using it any more.
PufPuf23
(8,774 posts)Like some of the GOP haters.
pangaia
(24,324 posts)GulfCoast66
(11,949 posts)I love France. Go there as often as possible. Speak enough French that it is fun. Plus having had a French speaking Grandmother from Louisiana gives me some cred.
But anyway, met some friends in Paris for their first ever trip to Paris. Out of the country for that matter. They really wanted to do the Seine Dinner cruise, which did not excite me.
But it was really good. And the boat turned right where the smaller Statue of Liberty stood. It was an emotional experience.
PufPuf23
(8,774 posts)Was in France once, in 1981, for 10 days. Spent half the time in Pau and the other half in Paris. I am 1/8 French as great great grandparents and children came to Humboldt county on north coast of California in 1860s. Stayed with distant relatives in Pau and Paris and later several of the distant relatives we met in France came to visit in California. Always intended to go back but sometimes things do not work out as projected. alas.
Harker
(14,015 posts)freedom fries.
Thank you, France!
randr
(12,412 posts)I hope we rededicate ourselves to what lady liberty represents and invite all of France to the party
PufPuf23
(8,774 posts)Would be most refreshing.
forgotmylogin
(7,528 posts)The specific beautiful blue-green we're familiar with is oxidation...that's how copper rusts and the effect was intended.
TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)It was a leader of the Enlightenment and the center of Western science.
Jefferson and Lafayette collaborated with other French thinkers on the Declaration of the Rights of Man.
And Lafayette, with the blessings of the French king, was of immeasurable help on our revolution.
And, with Napolean going broke conquering Europe, we got a great deal on Louisiana.