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On May 21, 1884, the statue was completed—nearly 20 years after its conception. A ceremony took place at the French foundry where the statue had been built.
Both the American minister to France and the French Prime Minister Jules Ferry attended. The president of the Franco-American Union stated: “We commit it to your care, Mr. Minister, that it may remain forever the pledge of the bonds which should unite France and the great American nation.”
During the spring of 1885, workmen carefully took apart, packed, and shipped the statue to the United States. It filled 214 crates. On June 17, 1885, crowds cheered as the ship Isère entered New York Harbor.
However, it would be more than a year before the statue would be ready to be dedicated to the people of America.
Before the statue could be placed on Bedloe’s Island, a foundation and a pedestal had to be built. Richard Hunt’s first design for the pedestal (left) was around 115 feet tall. By 1883, however, the American Committee, which was in charge of raising funds for the pedestal, had raised only about a third of the needed money. Hunt was asked to change his design. He settled on a pedestal 89 feet high.
In May 1884, the work on the pedestal’s foundation was completed and the work on the pedestal began. Before even half of it was built, the money ran out. Some felt that since Liberty was to stand in New York, New Yorkers should pay for it. Others felt that because it was a gift from France, the French ought to pay for all of it. ▶
Newspaperman Joseph Pulitzer, among others, was deeply embarrassed that Americans were not rallying behind this important symbol and gift. He took the wealthy to task, saying, “Let us not wait for the millionaires.... Give something, however little, we will publish the name of every giver....” And he did, in his newspaper The World. In five months, 121,000 people contributed $102,000—one gift as small as five cents! Construction on the pedestal resumed and was completed in April 1886.
The 214 crates, which had been sitting untouched for nearly a year, could now be opened. Each day, people watched as the pedestal, the skeleton, and then the statue itself rose higher and higher. Here is a photograph of the completed pedestal. ▶
◀ A boatload of suffragists campaigning for women’s rights placed themselves directly in front of the viewing stand. They were angry because the only women invited to the ceremony were the wives of dignitaries. They felt it was an insult to put up a statue of a woman that was dedicated to liberty when women in the U.S. and France didn’t have the right to vote! Women in the U.S. didn’t win that right until 1920.
