Liberty: At Last

Until last week, I had never visited the Statue of Liberty. I had viewed it from the shores of both New Jersey and New York andI had planned to swim in front of it, but I had never gone to Liberty Island and toured the Lady herself.

Having just finished my Pursuit of Happiness bead journal, imagine my delight in finally getting to view Lady Liberty, up-close-and-personal. Though we couldn't get tickets to go into the crown, we were able to secure tickets to visit the museum and pedestal -- and that was enough.


There were many, many gifts of enlightenment I received that day as a result of my tour...

1. The Statue of Liberty was the result of collaboration not only between France and America; but between some of the most brilliant artists and engineers of the 19th century. It was their combined passions and their collaborations that have resulted in the statue we have today.
2. To many Frenchmen, who had lived under predominantly monarchical rule. America's republican government was the embodiment of a French ideal, a working example of liberte, egalite and fraternite in an age of reason. But it was one Frenchman, Edouard de Laboulaye -- a French expert on American constitutional history AND a distinguished professor and lecturer -- who hosted a legendary dinner in 1865 which gave rise to the idea of the creation of a gift to the U.S. -- "La Liberte Elcairant le Monde" or Liberty Englightening the World -- which was her official original title. He wanted the gift to symbolize the shared principles that united the interests of both France and the U.S. and he led a tremendous fund raising campaign in France that resulted in raising $4oo,ooo to build the gift.
3. The French sculptor, Frederic Bartholdi, attended the dinner and had his own dream to build a colossal statue. He was driven to create this dream and didn't give up until he had achieved it. When he visited New York, he saw the island in the middle of the harbor and convinced New York that the statue must be located there.
4. The French wanted the Liberty statue to be a symbol of American independence and be a gift for our 100th anniversary -- they felt that the project would be more meaningful if it were a combined effort of both nations. That meant America had to pay for and build the pedestal. At first, America didn't want the present, didn't want to be bothered...and fund raising was limited to New York and to a handful of wealthy New Yorkers, many of whom of French descent. Even with 10 years notice, America's pedestal was still not ready after the statue was complete so Liberty sat in France for two years from 1884-1886.
5. The turn of events in America occurred when in March 1885, Joseph Pulitzer (of Pulitzer prize fame and publisher of The New York World newspaper) appealed to American pride and ran a series of cover stories on the front page of his paper asking the American people to embrace the gift from France...donating anything they could...and he would print the names of everyone who gave regardless of the donation amount. Brilliant! Small, individual donations from the American public fueled the fund-raising campaign, resulting in enough money to build the pedestal.
6. The statue itself is hollow and is a patchwork of fairly-thin, pieced-copper -- only about 2 pennies thick -- a copper quilt, of sorts. You can really see the patches in this close up picture.
   The sculpture was made using the Repousse method which hammers the design over a mold from the inside.
   
7. It sways in the wind and is expands/contracts with weather because of the complex and ingenious structural framework which supports Liberty from inside...designed by Gustave Eiffel (just a few years before he designed the Eiffel Tower...) -- I never knew any of this!
8. I could go on and on but the story and evolution of this monument to our Nation's liberty is really compelling and very inspirational. To me, the Statue of Liberty had always inspired feelings of national pride, protection and strength in our nation's ideals. But now, I also see the Statue of Liberty as a modern marvel; a phenomenon of the ingenuity of man himself. Liberty first started out as a lighthouse in New York's harbor and her torch housed a small dim light. The torch was redesigned many times and today it is gilded so that it reflects the sun during the day and it is illuminated at night.
9. As the statue aged and the copper began to oxidize, the verdigris color began to grow like "lichen" on the statue. Bertholdi, her sculptor, was horrified and there was talk of cleaning her or painting her white. Who knew? I can't imagine her any other color. Of course, when she was first built she was gleaming copper color, slowly darkening until her verdigris coat was complete.
10. Now, her verdigris colors spread down the granite-faced pedestal. And I think that was one of the most amazing discoveries of the day for me. Even though I couldn't touch her coppery skin, her essence was coming down to meet me on the observation balcony of the pedestal.
    
11. I was fascinated by the colors as you can tell. So much so, that I took color samplings for you and painted this palette...they are very soothing colors...
12. One last funny thing I learned...I learned when you lay yourself down on the ground to try to get a picture of the kids AND the full statue in the background...other tourists start to think it's a good idea and start lying on the ground too. I wish I had taken a picture of THAT!

I wonder what will become of these colors of Liberty and if they will seep into some future project...because I can't seem to wash them away no matter what I do.

I'm on vacation for the next 10 days or so. I may post a few times while I'm away but, if I don't, you'll know why...and I will try and post Charm School next Tuesday.

Thank you France!