🪴 GoDeep
Search
← University Challenge
Portrait of The Statue of Liberty

Geography · Landmarks & wonders

The Statue of Liberty

dedicated 28 October 1886

United States — Liberty Island, New York Harbor

A colossal neoclassical figure of Libertas in hammered copper, given to the United States by the people of France and dedicated in New York Harbor in 1886. Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi sculpted her; Gustave Eiffel engineered the iron skeleton that lets the thin copper skin flex in the wind. Emma Lazarus's sonnet, added to the pedestal in 1903, made her the emblem of American immigration.

How to spot them

  • ▸Quiz clue: 'Bartholdi', 'Laboulaye', 'Liberty Island', 'Libertas', 'The New Colossus'
  • ▸A crown of seven rays, a raised torch, and a tablet of Roman numerals
  • ▸A gift from one republic to another, shipped across the Atlantic in 214 crates
  • ▸Green not by design but by chemistry

Key facts

A gift from the people of France, proposed by the abolitionist Édouard de Laboulaye

France paid for the statue, the American public for the pedestal

Sculpted by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, with an iron framework engineered by Gustave Eiffel

Eugène Viollet-le-Duc had the job first and proposed a sand-filled masonry pier; Eiffel's flexible skeleton replaced it after his death

Her tablet is inscribed JULY IV MDCCLXXVI

4 July 1776, the date of the Declaration of Independence

At her feet lies a broken chain and shackle, half hidden by her robe

Commemorating the abolition of slavery after the Civil War

Her seven crown rays stand for the seven seas and seven continents

The torch arm and head were exhibited separately in Philadelphia and Paris to raise funds

Emma Lazarus's sonnet, added in 1903, gave her the lines about huddled masses (1903)

'The New Colossus' was written in 1883 for a fundraising auction for the pedestal

Joseph Pulitzer's newspaper campaign raised the money for her pedestal from small donations (1885)

The World printed the name of every donor; most gave less than a dollar

She is not carved or cast, but hammered sheet copper about the thickness of two pennies

Repoussé work, 2.4 mm thick, over an iron armature — which is why she is green

Quick-fire facts

  • •The statue is 46 m (151 ft) from heel to torch; 93 m (305 ft) from the ground to the tip of the torch
  • •Dedicated on 28 October 1886 by President Grover Cleveland
  • •The copper skin oxidised from dull brown to its green patina over about thirty years
  • •A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984, and a US National Monument administered by the National Park Service
  • •The original torch was replaced in the 1980s restoration and now stands in the museum on the island
  • •Common misconception: she never served as a lighthouse for long — an attempt to use her as an aid to navigation lasted only from 1886 to 1902 and was abandoned as useless
  • •Another misconception: Ellis Island, the immigration station, is a separate island nearby; the statue's own island was renamed Liberty Island only in 1956

Drill it — 8 cards

1 / 8new card

Sources