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The dinner party took place in 1865. Six years later, Bartholdi began work on the statue. Two things had kept him from starting.
First, France was under the rule of Napoleon III, who didn’t want to celebrate liberty. Second, in 1870, France and Germany began fighting the Franco-Prussian War, and Bartholdi had signed up for the war.
The Franco-Prussian war ended in 1871. Bartholdi went back to thinking about the monument. Laboulaye asked him to travel to the U.S. to see the country. He also wanted Bartholdi to find out what the American people thought about the idea of the statue.
On June 8, 1871, Bartholdi sailed to New York. Many people on the ship were looking for a new life in America. As the ship approached New York, they climbed on deck. They couldn’t wait to get their first look at America. Bartholdi felt the same way. As he looked out, he saw Bedloe’s Island guarding the entrance to New York Harbor. That’s when Bartholdi knew he had found the perfect home for his statue.
After he landed in the U.S., Bartholdi met with many people. President Ulysses S. Grant was one of them. They helped him turn what he called Liberty Enlightening the World into the Statue of Liberty. Wherever he went, Bartholdi took a sketch of the statue. He asked everyone this question: Would Americans provide the pedestal and land if the French paid for the statue itself? ▶
▲ Bartholdi made six clay models. Each one was a little different. He finally came up with one that he thought was a good representation of Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom.
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What are the three big changes in these models, from the earliest (above left) to the latest (above right)?
The torch has moved from the left hand to the right. The crown has spikes. The left hand holds a tablet.
This print shows New York Harbor around 1872. When Bartholdi came to New York, this is what he may have seen. The small piece of land at the upper right center is Bedloe’s Island. During the War of 1812, Fort Wood had been built there. The fort was shaped like an 11-pointed star. ▼
In 1875, Laboulaye sent President Grant a formal request. Would Grant allow the monument to be built on Bedloe’s Island? That same year, Laboulaye set up the French-American Union to raise money for the statue. At one fund-raising party in Paris, Bartholdi showed the final model to his guests. It was a scary moment: Would people like what they saw? The answer was “yes!” The guests gave him 40,000 francs. This was about 10 percent of the money needed to build the statue. By the end of 1875, Laboulaye had raised half of the money. Now, Bartholdi could begin work. ▶
◀ In the early 1870s, Bartholdi created this bronze casting of the statue’s head and crown. The rays had not yet been added.
Bartholdi worked on many projects in his Paris studio. These included the models for the Statue of Liberty. One of the models can be seen in the center of this photograph. ▶
