Free
It was six years after the 1865 dinner party before Bartholdi could begin work on the statue. For one thing, France was under the tight grip of Napoleon III, who didn’t want to celebrate liberty.
For another, in 1870, France and Germany were fighting the Franco-Prussian War, and Bartholdi had enlisted.
After the war ended in 1871, Bartholdi once again turned his attention to the monument, and he and Laboulaye resumed their conversations. Laboulaye asked Bartholdi to travel to the United States. He wanted Bartholdi to see the country and find out what people thought about the idea of the statue.
On June 8, 1871, Bartholdi set sail for New York City. Many of the people on board the ship were immigrants who were hoping to start a new life in America. As the ship approached New York City, the passengers climbed onto the deck, eager for their first glimpse of America. Bartholdi, too, couldn’t wait to see the country. As he looked ahead, he saw Bedloe’s Island guarding the entrance to New York Harbor. Bartholdi immediately knew he had found the perfect home for his statue.
In the U.S., Bartholdi met many people who helped turn what he called Liberty Enlightening the World into the Statue of Liberty. He even met with President Ulysses S. Grant. Wherever he went, he took a sketch of the statue and asked people this question: Would Americans provide the pedestal and land for the statue if the French paid for the statue itself? ▶
▲ Bartholdi made six clay models, changing many details along the way. Finally, he was satisfied with a design that symbolized Libertas, the ancient Roman goddess of freedom.
Check It Out!
What are the three biggest changes from the earliest model of the statue (above left) to the latest model (above right)?
The torch has been moved from the left hand to the right, the crown now has spikes, and the left hand is now holding a tablet.
This print shows New York Harbor around 1872. Bartholdi may have seen something that looked very much like this when he sailed into New York. The small piece of land at the upper right center is Bedloe’s Island. During the War of 1812, Fort Wood, which was shaped like an 11-pointed star, had been built on the island. ▼
In 1875, Laboulaye not only made a formal request to President Grant to use Bedloe’s Island as the site of the monument, he also set up the French-American Union to raise money for the statue’s construction. At one fund-raising party in Paris, Bartholdi showed the final model to the guests. It was a scary moment: Would people like what they saw? The answer was “yes!” The guests contributed 40,000 francs, which was about 10 percent of the money that was needed to build the statue. By the end of 1875, Laboulaye and Bartholdi had raised half of the money they needed, and Bartholdi could start work. ▶
◀ In the early 1870s, Bartholdi created the bronze casting of the statue’s head and crown that is pictured here. This was done before he decided to add the rays to the crown.
Bartholdi worked on many different projects in his Paris studio, including models for the Statue of Liberty. One of these models can be seen in the center of this photograph. ▶
