Statue of Liberty
Built (work completed) in 1884
France
Unveiled in 1886
New York Harbor, New York
America's symbol of democracy and welcome to immigrants
"From her beacon-hand / Glows world-wide welcome …"
In New York Harbor, the Statue of Liberty, an elegant lady holding a torch to light the way for hundreds of thousands of European immigrants, is a stirring symbol of both the United States and its welcoming embrace of "huddled masses yearning to breathe free." The image of the statue is widely reproduced as a celebration of the American political system and the country's history as a collection of immigrants who together built a new nation on the North American continent. Like written documents such as the Declaration of Independence (1776) declaring that "all men are created equal," the Statue of Liberty has a long history behind its symbolism.
The Statue of Liberty began as a joint vision in the eyes of two Frenchmen: sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (1834–1904) and politician Éduoard-René Lefebvre de Laboulaye (1811–1883). They met at a dinner party in 1863 or 1865 (authors differ on the date), where Laboulaye sketched out an idea for a statue that would symbolize the role of the United States as a model for the freedom-loving republic, a government in which power lay in the hands of the people, instead of a king, Laboulaye wanted to see in France.
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