A long time ago, as a little girl, I dreamed of traveling all over the world, and often I'd ask about the past driving everyone crazy fast! Amused by this my parents thought, why not call me History for short?
Since then I've traveled by land, sea, and air...
So read this book and I ll take you somewhere!
Little Miss HISTORY Travels to The Statue of Liberty 2013 Barbara Ann Mojica. All Rights Reserved. Published in The UNITED STATES of AMERICA eugenus STUDIOS P.O. BOX 112 CRARYVILLE, NY 12521 E-Mail: HistorianAtLarge@gmail.com WebSite: www.littlemisshistory.com ISBN-13: 978-1492211846 ISBN-10: 1492211842 No part of this book is to be reproduced, in any format, without the written permission of the author.
Edouard De Laboulalye, the father of the Statue of Liberty, came up with the idea for the statue in 1865.
He was a Frenchman who supported the Union during the American Civil War and was an Abolitionist.
Laboulalye convinced the French government to give a statue of freedom to the Americans as a gift in recognition of their friendship and shared spirit for liberty.
In 1876 Laboulalye chose a sculptor and friend named Frederic Auguste Bartholdi to design the statue. He was already working on a bust of Laboulalye.
In 1879 the statue s engineer, Eugene Viollet-le-Duc died so Bartholdi hired another engineer for the job. He chose the man who designed the Eiffel Tower, Alexandre Gustave Eiffel.
The French and Americans decided to share the cost of building the Statue of Liberty. The French would build the statue, the Americans the pedestal, but they both had trouble funding the project.
The Americans picked architect Richard Morris Hunt to design a grand pedestal. His plan combined the designs of a fortress with the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria.
After the cornerstone was laid, they ran out of money so Hunt created a smaller and wider design. To save money they used concrete walls up to twenty feet thick faced with blocks of granite.
A newspaper editor named Joseph Pulitzer, of Pulitzer Prize fame, raised money using his newspaper. His editorial scolded the rich and middle class for not donating money to the pedestal project. It worked!
Even children helped. They sent in one dollar each, money they had saved to go to the circus.
Emma Lazarus, a Jewish-American woman, writer, poet and advocate for the Jewish community, wrote a poem called The New Colossus to raise money for the Statue of Liberty s pedestal.
Her poem is on a bronze tablet at the statue s base!
This was quite an achievement. At that time women did not have the right to vote. Women were not even allowed on Bedloe Island, Liberty Island today, to see the unveiling!
The French had to take the statue apart before they could get it to America.
In 1885 she arrived in 350 pieces. They were packed in 214 wooden crates on a ship named Isere that nearly sank in rough seas!
Workers put the statue back together again in four months! In 1886 it was finished.
New York City held its first ticker tape parade ever to celebrate the unveiling.
The Statue of Liberty, sometimes called Lady Liberty, was believed to be modeled after the Roman goddess of freedom, Libertas. But in 1883 a famous sculptor named Pio Fedi completed this statue called Liberty of Poetry.
At first Lady Liberty served as a lighthouse!
It was not until 1924 that she was designated a National Monument by President Calvin Coolidge.
And now back to Lady Liberty herself. You can see broken chains under her feet. These represent freedom for all!
The outside copper coating on the statue is really thin. It is less than the thickness of two pennies!
The green color called patina happens because she stands in all types of weather.
The keystone in Lady Liberty's left hand represents our government's keystone document, The Declaration of Independence.
A keystone in architecture supports all other stones in the arch.
This keystone has inscribed on it the date July 4, 1776.
Her crown has 7 rays that stand for the 7 world continents. They are: North America, South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Antarctica.
This famous lady has become a symbol of freedom and hope worldwide!
I hope you will visit her one day...
... and may she continue lighting the way to hope and liberty for all!
Next Stop...