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Hundreds of people worked to build the statue, which took 21 years to finish.
Here are some of the most important.
Charlotte Bartholdi ▶
Charlotte Bartholdi’s son designed the statue. He thought Liberty should be a dignified older woman. So he made the statue look like his mother.
◀ Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi
As a child, Bartholdi showed great artistic talent. He studied architecture, drawing, and painting with the best teachers. So it was no surprise when he was asked to build a monument to celebrate American liberty. Bartholdi had created large sculptures before. One of them was of the Marquis de Lafayette, a rich Frenchman who fought for the colonists during the American Revolution. It stands today in New York City. Bartholdi died of tuberculosis in 1904.
Alexandre Gustave Eiffel ▶
Eiffel didn’t think his work on the Statue of Liberty’s framework was anything special. Others thought it was a work of genius. Eiffel probably felt that way because people who looked at the statue couldn’t see his work inside. In 1885, he was asked to build what became his most famous work, the Eiffel Tower. It was the centerpiece for the Paris World’s Fair of 1889. From then until 1931, it was the tallest building in the world. Then the Empire State Building was built. It set a new record.
Richard Morris Hunt ▶
Hunt was the first American to study architecture at the famous École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He was known for building mansions in New York City. Hunt was paid $1,000 to design Liberty’s pedestal. He gave the money to the statue’s building fund.
◀ Édouard René Laboulaye
Laboulaye was a historian, professor, and politician. He came up with the idea of giving the U.S. a gift on the country’s 100th birthday. He hired Bartholdi to design the statue. He was also the president of the Franco-American Union. As a professor, he was the first ever to teach a course on the U.S. Constitution at a French college. Sadly, he died before the Statue of Liberty was unveiled.
◀ William Maxwell Evarts
Evarts was chairman of the American Committee of the Franco-American Union. It raised money for the pedestal. Evarts officially gave the Statue of Liberty to the American public. That took place on Bedloe’s Island on October 28, 1886.
Emma Lazarus ▶
Lazarus was a New Yorker of Portuguese-Jewish descent. She fought for the fair treatment of Jews who had come to the U.S. Lazarus wrote “The New Colossus” for the Pedestal Art Loan Exhibit. Four years later, she died of cancer, in 1887. She was 38 years old. When she wrote the poem, it didn’t get much attention. Three years later, as other poems about Liberty were getting noticed, hers rose to the top. Still, it wasn’t until her friend Georgina Schuyler came across the poem that it was brought to the public’s attention. It was placed inside the pedestal in 1903.
◀ Joseph Pulitzer
Pulitzer had come to the U.S. from Hungary. He fought for the Union army during the Civil War. In 1878, he bought two newspapers, the Saint Louis Post and the Dispatch. In 1883, he bought the New York World newspaper. Pulitzer paid Bartholdi to build a statue, Washington and Lafayette. It was Pulitzer’s gift to France, a thank you for the Statue of Liberty.
