Cabinet photo - card
Size: 10.70 x 16.40 cm.
La statue de la Liberté, ou La Liberté éclairant le monde[2],[3] (en anglais : Liberty Enlightening the World)[4], est une statue monumentale située à New York, sur Liberty Island, au sud de Manhattan, à l'embouchure du fleuve Hudson et à proximité d’Ellis Island. C'est l'un des monuments les plus célèbres des États-Unis.
Construite et assemblée en France, sur une idée en 1865 du juriste Édouard Lefebvre de Laboulaye, au moment d'une collecte du quotidien Le Phare de la Loire pour honorer la veuve d'Abraham Lincoln[5], la statue est offerte en signe d'amitié par le peuple français aux Américains. L'inauguration a lieu le 28 octobre 1886 en présence du président des États-Unis, Grover Cleveland, pour commémorer, avec dix ans de retard, le centenaire de la Déclaration d'indépendance américaine.
La réalisation et la maîtrise d’œuvre en furent confiées en 1871 au Français Auguste Bartholdi qui prit Viollet le Duc comme architecte, remplacé après sa mort en 1879 par Gustave Eiffel.
L'énorme socle permettant de doubler sa hauteur de 46 à 93 mètres, pour un total de 225 tonnes, est le résultat d'une collecte de fonds américaine dirigée par le procureur général, William M. Evarts, mais les travaux s'arrêtèrent aux fondations, suscitant des critiques de la presse américaine face à un projet jugé démesuré. Le journaliste Joseph Pulitzer, « précurseur »[6] d'une « presse d'investigation engagée » socialement[6] accepta de mobiliser les premières pages de son quotidien New York World pour récolter plus d'argent, gagnant ainsi environ 50 000 nouveaux abonnés.
Pour le choix du cuivre, l'architecte Eugène Viollet-le-Duc eut l'idée de la technique du repoussé et à sa mort en 1879, Bartholdi fit appel à l'ingénieur Gustave Eiffel, qui imagina un pylône métallique supportant les plaques de cuivre martelées et fixées.
La statue fait partie des National Historic Landmarks depuis le 15 octobre 1924 et de la liste du patrimoine mondial de l'UNESCO depuis 1984[7]. La statue de la Liberté, en plus d'être un monument très important de la ville de New York, est devenue l'un des symboles des États-Unis et représente de manière plus générale la liberté et l'émancipation vis-à-vis de l'oppression. De son inauguration en 1886 jusqu'à l'ère de l'aviation[8], la statue est ainsi la première vision des États-Unis pour des millions d'immigrants, après une longue traversée de l'océan Atlantique. Elle constitue l'élément principal du Statue of Liberty National Monument qui est géré par le service des parcs nationaux. La création de la statue de la Liberté se place dans la tradition du colosse de Rhodes, dont certaines représentations ont sans doute été une inspiration pour Bartholdi[9],[10],[11].
Après les attentats du 11 septembre 2001, l'accès a été interdit pour des raisons de sécurité : le piédestal a rouvert en 2004 et la statue en 2009, avec une limitation du nombre de visiteurs autorisés à accéder à la couronne. La statue (y compris le piédestal et la base) a été fermée pendant une année jusqu'au 28 octobre 2012, pour qu'un escalier secondaire et d'autres dispositifs de sécurité puissent être installés (l'accès à l'île est cependant resté ouvert). Un jour après la réouverture, l'accès a été de nouveau interdit en raison des effets dévastateurs de l'ouragan Sandy. Les accès à l'île et à la statue ont été rouverts le 4 juillet 2013[12]. L'accès du public au balcon entourant la torche est toujours interdit, pour des raisons de sécurité, depuis 1916.
Histoire
Article connexe : Guerre d'indépendance des États-Unis.
Cadeau du peuple français aux États-Unis
Auguste Bartholdi, concepteur de la statue de la Liberté.
L'idée d'un présent, en gage de l'amitié franco-américaine et pour célébrer le centenaire de la déclaration d'indépendance des États-Unis, est traditionnellement donnée comme ayant pour origine un dîner organisé au début de l'été 1865 à Glatigny chez le juriste français Édouard de Laboulaye qui avait réuni un groupe d'amis libéraux comme lui (Oscar du Motier de La Fayette, Charles de Rémusat, Hippolyte Clérel de Tocqueville et le sculpteur alsacien Auguste Bartholdi qui venait de sculpter le buste de Laboulaye) pour célébrer la victoire de l'Union dans la guerre de Sécession et se désoler de la mort d'Abraham Lincoln, mais en réalité aucun projet de cadeau n’était sorti du dîner[5].
L'idée d'une statue en relation avec Lincoln et les États-Unis ne naît pas de ce dîner mais d'une collecte de fonds organisée en 1865 par le quotidien Le Phare de la Loire pour une médaille en or dédiée à Mary Todd Lincoln, la veuve du président américain et qui portait l’inscription « Dédiée par la Démocratie française à Lincoln, honnête homme qui abolit l’esclavage, rétablit l’Union, sauva la République, sans voiler la statue de la Liberté »[5]. Bartholdi a certainement mélangé la campagne pour la médaille et le dîner d'américanophiles pour inventer dans son journal, vingt ans après les faits, un pamphlet donné lors de ce dîner pour lever des fonds[13].
Ce projet, né à la fin des années 1860, en pleine vague de statuomanie, vacille en raison de la situation politique instable de la fin du Second Empire. Bartholdi, impressionné par les colosses de Memnon qu'il a découverts lors de son voyage en Égypte en 1855, se consacre alors à d'autres sculptures colossales, comme celle d'un grand phare (sous la forme d'une fellahine de 19 m de hauteur tenant une torche en l'air) à l'entrée du canal de Suez qu'il propose en 1867 à Ismaïl Pacha, khédive d'Égypte et qui s’appellerait La Liberté éclairant l'Orient. Ce projet est abandonné, faute de financement (une statue plus modeste de Ferdinand de Lesseps, sculptée par Emmanuel Frémiet, est inaugurée le 17 novembre 1899 à Port-Saïd), mais Bartholdi garde le souvenir de cette statuaire colossale égyptienne[14].
En 1870, Bartholdi sculpte une première ébauche en terre cuite et en modèle réduit[15] aujourd'hui exposée au musée Bartholdi à Colmar. La même année, la France entre en guerre contre la Prusse et doit capituler. Le 10 mai 1871, elle cède l'Alsace-Lorraine à l'Empire allemand. L'opinion publique et le gouvernement français sont déçus de la sympathie des États-Unis pour les Allemands, dont le nombre était important sur le sol américain. Le projet commémoratif est temporairement écarté en raison des troubles politiques que connaît le début de la Troisième République. En effet, la plupart des Français pensent alors que cette république n'est qu'une solution temporaire qui laisserait place à la monarchie, ou à un régime semblable à celui de Napoléon Ier.[réf. nécessaire]
Gustave Eiffel participe également au projet de la statue de la Liberté, dont il conçoit l'armature métallique.
Le 8 juin 1871, muni de lettres d'introduction de Laboulaye, Bartholdi part pour cinq mois aux États-Unis où il repère le site de Bedloe's Island, future Liberty Island, et tente de gagner des partisans. Il rencontre le président américain Ulysses S. Grant le 18 juillet 1871 à New York[16]. Dans un club select de la ville de New York, il organise un dîner pour collecter des fonds auprès de riches républicains, leur révélant le coût initial de la sculpture, 125 000 dollars (correspondant à 2,5 millions au début du XXIe siècle) pour le piédestal à la charge des Américains, 125 000 pour le reste de la statue à la charge des Français, mais il revient en France sans argent, les hommes d'affaires voulant apposer le nom de leur compagnie sur la statue en échange de leur participation financière[17].
La structure a été conçue dans les ateliers Gustave Eiffel, à Levallois-Perret, et au 25 rue de Chazelles dans le 17e arrondissement de Paris, là où se montaient les pièces de cuivre.
Modèles de la statue
Isabella Eugénie Boyer (1841-1904) épouse de l'inventeur Isaac Merritt Singer, qui aurait servi de modèle pour la statue de la Liberté.
Choix du visage
Des sources diverses mettent en avant différents modèles qui auraient servi à déterminer le visage de la statue. Cependant, les historiens en sont réduits à des hypothèses et aucune proposition n'est véritablement fiable et authentique[18].
Parmi les modèles proposés, on trouve Isabella Eugénie Boyer, veuve de l'inventeur milliardaire Isaac Merritt Singer, fondateur de la célèbre entreprise de machines à coudre, qui avait contribué au financement du projet[19]. Mais Bartholdi ne l'a connue qu'en 1875, alors que le visage existait déjà[20].
Selon certaines sources, Bartholdi se serait inspiré du visage de sa propre mère, Charlotte Bartholdi (1801-1891), dont il était très proche, pour donner à la statue son visage sévère[21]. Le National Geographic Magazine appuie cette hypothèse, en précisant que le sculpteur n'a jamais expliqué ni démenti cette ressemblance avec sa mère[22].
D'autres modèles fantaisistes[23],[24],[25] ont été avancés : Bartholdi aurait voulu reproduire le visage d'une jeune fille juchée sur une barricade et tenant une torche, au lendemain du coup d'État de Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte mais Bartholdi n'était pas présent à Paris à cette époque[26]. Il se serait inspiré d'un modèle qui posait pour lui, une femme surnommée la « Grande Céline », prostituée du quartier Pigalle, avec l'accord de la sous-maîtresse dirigeant le grand bordel de la rue de Chazelles, près des ateliers où les feuilles de cuivre de la statue furent assemblées[27],[28].
Une étude publiée par Nathalie Salmon en août et en octobre 2013[29],[30] obtient le soutien d'institutions européennes et américaines[31] ainsi que l'apport documentaire de divers organismes[32]. Elle met en avant une de ses ancêtres, l'Américaine Sarah Coblenzer (New York, 1844 - Paris, 1904), future épouse de son ami intime, fondé de pouvoir et promoteur de l'amitié franco-américaine Adolphe Salmon[33],documents à l'appui, l'auteur montre comment elle a posé pour lui à Paris pour la statue de la Liberté[34],[35],[36],[37],[38],[39],[40],[41],[23] au printemps 1875, lors d'un voyage en Europe[42]. Bartholdi a peut-être réalisé une synthèse de plusieurs visages féminins[43],[44],[45], afin de donner une image neutre et impersonnelle de la Liberté mais la ressemblance avec le visage néoclassique de Sarah Coblenzer est indéniable[46],[43].
Selon Régis Hueber, historien et conservateur honoraire du musée Bartholdi, ces hypothèses relèvent de légendes. Voulant exalter la portée universelle du message républicain de la Liberté, Bartholdi ne s'est certainement pas inspiré de cas particuliers[47].
Sources d'inspiration
Aquarelle du projet de Bartholdi pour le canal de Suez, 1869 (musée Bartholdi).
Lors d'une visite en Égypte, Auguste Bartholdi fut inspiré par le projet du canal de Suez dont la construction allait être entamée sous la direction de l'entrepreneur et diplomate français Ferdinand de Lesseps, qui devint par la suite l'un de ses plus grands amis. Il imagina ainsi un immense phare qui serait situé à l'entrée du canal et dont il dessina les plans. Le phare serait à l'image de la déesse de la Liberté Libertas du panthéon romain, divinité de la liberté, mais sa représentation devait être modifiée afin de ressembler à une paysanne égyptienne en robe (une fallaha). La lumière du phare devait resplendir à travers un bandeau placé autour de la tête du phare, ainsi qu'au sommet d'une torche maintenue en l'air, en direction des cieux[48],[49]. Bartholdi présenta ses plans au Khédive Isma'il Pasha en 1867 puis de nouveau en 1869, mais le projet ne fut jamais retenu[50]. Les dessins de ce projet intitulé L'Égypte apportant la lumière à l'Asie ou La liberté éclairant l'Orient ressemblent fortement à la statue de la Liberté, même si Bartholdi a toujours affirmé que le monument new-yorkais n'était pas un réemploi, mais bien une œuvre originale[15].
Le projet de construction d'un phare à l'entrée du canal de Suez s'inspirait lui-même d'un autre monument de l'Antiquité : le colosse de Rhodes qui était l'une des Sept Merveilles du monde[51]. Construit à effigie du dieu grec du soleil, Hélios, le colosse aurait eu une taille de l'ordre de 30 mètres, et se tenait également à l'entrée d'un port avec une torche pour guider les navires[51]. La position du colosse, les jambes écartées autour de l'entrée, étant cependant différente de celle de la statue de la Liberté. C'est également en statue d'Apollon Hélios, coiffée d'une couronne rayonnante, que fut transformée la statue colossale de bronze, de plus de trente mètres, de l'empereur Néron, lorsqu'elle fut déplacée devant le Colisée par Hadrien.
La coiffe de la Liberté est directement inspirée du Grand sceau de France, symbole officiel de la République française depuis la Seconde République en 1848. Les deux « Libertés », française et américaine, portent chacune une couronne à sept branches symbolisant les sept mers et continents de la planète[52]. De nombreuses autres sources d'inspiration sont évoquées, comme la statue de La Liberté de la poésie brisant ses chaînes (1883), monument à Jean-Baptiste Niccolini réalisé par Pio Fedi dans la Basilique Santa Croce de Florence et dont Bartholdi aurait pu voir l'esquisse sur place en 1870[53], la même année où Jules Lefebvre réalisait son tableau La Vérité et Bartholdi les premières études de sa statue ; tandis que le thème de la liberté figurait déjà avec Le Génie de la Liberté (1836) sur la colonne de Juillet ou dans le tableau de La Liberté guidant le peuple (1830) de Delacroix.
Grand sceau de la République Française (1848).
Grand sceau de la République Française (1848).
La Vérité, Jules Lefebvre, Musée d'Orsay (1870).
La Vérité, Jules Lefebvre, Musée d'Orsay (1870).
La Liberté de la poésie brisant ses chaînes, Pio Fedi (1883).
La Liberté de la poésie brisant ses chaînes, Pio Fedi (1883).
Représentation du colosse de Rhodes (1880).
Représentation du colosse de Rhodes (1880).
Denier de Néron au Colosse radié tenant le globe nicéphore.
Denier de Néron au Colosse radié tenant le globe nicéphore.
Construction de la statue en France
D'un commun accord, il est convenu que les Français seraient responsables de la conception et de la construction de la statue puis de son assemblage une fois les pièces arrivées sur le sol américain, et que les États-Unis se chargeraient de la construction du socle. Cependant, des problèmes financiers surviennent des deux côtés de l'océan Atlantique.
En France, la campagne de promotion pour la statue débute à l'automne 1875[54]. C'est le Comité de l’Union Franco-Américaine[55], pour lever des fonds, fondé en 1875 par Édouard de Laboulaye, qui se charge d'organiser la collecte des fonds pour la construction de la statue[56]. Tous les moyens de l'époque sont utilisés à cette fin : articles dans la presse, spectacles, banquets, taxations publiques, loterie, coupe-papier à l'effigie de la statue, etc. La cantate La Statue de La Liberté de Charles Gounod composée spécialement est créée à l'Opéra au profit de la souscription. Plusieurs villes françaises y participent (Le Havre offre 1 000 francs ; le conseil municipal de Paris, 10 000 francs [57]) ; des conseils généraux, des chambres de commerce, le Grand Orient de France mais aussi des milliers de particuliers firent des dons. Le nombre de 100 000 souscripteurs est annoncé (Chiffre invérifiable[57]). Dès la fin de l'année 1875, les fonds rassemblés se montent à 400 000 francs, alors que le devis est passé à un million de francs de l'époque[58]. Ce n'est qu'en 1880 que la totalité du financement est assurée en France.
Parallèlement, aux États-Unis, des spectacles de théâtre, des expositions d'art, des ventes aux enchères ainsi que des combats de boxe professionnels sont organisés pour recueillir de l'argent nécessaire à la construction du socle.
Bartholdi confie d'abord la conception de la statue à Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, architecte et théoricien du rationalisme architectural. Pour sa construction Viollet le Duc choisit l’atelier Monduit à Paris, qui avait participé au chantier de Notre Dame de Paris et de Pierrefonds.
Viollet le Duc réalise les structures de la main tenant le flambeau et de la tête. Pour la surface de la statue il préconise une « peau » en plaques de cuivre repoussé. Il s'agit d'une armature formée de cornières métalliques prolongées verticalement par des jambages en fer. Elle ne porte pas directement l'enveloppe mais soutient des bandelettes en fer épousant exactement le contour de la peau extérieure, maintenue par des cavaliers en cuivre fixés chacun par des rivets. Un joint en carton bituminé est interposé pour éviter les effets électriques qui risqueraient d'accélérer la corrosion du fer. Ce procédé permet les dilatations différentes de la structure et de l'enveloppe, et laisse une certaine souplesse aux liaisons. Utilisé pour l'ensemble de la construction de la statue, il a prouvé son efficacité[59]. Viollet le Duc dessine aussi le plissé de la robe[60].
Pour la structure interne, Viollet le Duc propose un solide pylône en fer lesté par du sable afin de donner à la statue une stabilité face aux vents puissants de la baie[61]. Viollet-le-Duc étant tombé malade (il meurt en 1879), Bartholdi engage un nouvel ingénieur, Gustave Eiffel, qui le convainc d'adopter la technique du mur-rideau avec un pylône métallique massif, stabilisé de neuf niveaux de traverses horizontales et d'entretoises posées en diagonales, qui soutient la statue.
Les 300 feuilles de cuivre d'un mètre sur trois sont fabriquées à la main dans les ateliers de la fonderie Gaget-Gauthier et Cie en 1878 (ex atelier Monduit). Les 64 tonnes de feuilles de cuivre sont offertes par un donateur, l'industriel Pierre-Eugène Secrétan, permettant au chantier de démarrer[62]. Les travaux de précision sont ensuite confiés par Eiffel à Maurice Koechlin, l'un de ses proches avec qui il travaillera sur la tour Eiffel. Le pylône métallique servant d’armature et de support aux plaques de cuivre est construit à Levallois-Perret dans les ateliers Eiffel[63], d'autres éléments dans le 17e arrondissement de Paris[64].
La maison Gaget-Gauthier et Cie lance parallèlement la fabrication des plaques de cuivre. Elle loue un terrain de 3 000 mètres carrés rue de Chazelles, juste à côté de ses ateliers. Des formes en bois y servent à marteler des feuilles de cuivre de 2,5 mm d’épaisseur. Celles-ci sont ensuite fixées sur le squelette de fer, et boulonnées les unes aux autres. De nombreux aléas retardent la construction et l'assemblage : manque d'ouvriers et artisans (charpentiers, ferronniers, plâtriers) dû au financement incomplet. Seules neuf des 300 feuilles de cuivre sont achevées à la date du centenaire de l’indépendance, le 4 juillet 1876 et le plâtre de la main droite, celle qui porte le flambeau, se brise en mars 1876[65]. Une fois terminée, elle est envoyée, la même année, à la « Centennial Exposition » (exposition du centenaire) de Philadelphie[66]. Les visiteurs peuvent monter sur une échelle qui mène au balcon situé autour de la torche, moyennant 50 cents. Des photographies, des affiches et des maquettes de la statue sont vendues pendant l'Exposition afin de financer la suite des travaux. C'est ensuite la réalisation de la tête présentée, en 1878, à l’Exposition universelle de Paris (dans les jardins du Champ de Mars). Les visiteurs peuvent pénétrer à l'intérieur jusqu'au diadème au moyen d'un escalier de 43 mètres[67] moyennant la somme de 5 centimes.
Puis la haute statue émerge peu à peu des toits de la Plaine-Monceau et la rue de Chazelles, sur le terrain acquis pour l'occasion ; elle devient l’une des promenades favorites des Parisiens. Devenue le plus haut monument de Paris, elle se visite moyennant un droit d'entrée[61].
Des miniatures de la statue portant sur le socle le nom de Gaget sont vendues pour financer le projet. Selon la légende, c’est de là que viendrait le mot « gadget » : Gaget avec la prononciation anglaise[68].
L'ensemble terminé, la statue est démontée pour être transportée en 350 pièces par bateau. Remontée en quatre mois, elle est inaugurée à New York en octobre 1886 avec dix ans de retard sur la date prévue.
L'armature de la statue selon des plans de 1885.
L'armature de la statue selon des plans de 1885.
Les ateliers à Paris.
Les ateliers à Paris.
Construction d'une des mains en présence de Bartholdi.
Construction d'une des mains en présence de Bartholdi.
La tête de la statue à l'atelier parisien.
La tête de la statue à l'atelier parisien.
La statue de la Liberté dans les ateliers Gaget-Gauthier, à Paris.
La statue de la Liberté dans les ateliers Gaget-Gauthier, à Paris.
Tête de la statue exposée à l'Exposition de 1878 (parc du Champ-de-Mars).
Tête de la statue exposée à l'Exposition de 1878 (parc du Champ-de-Mars).
Couverture de l'Illustrated Newspaper du 13 juin 1885.
Couverture de l'Illustrated Newspaper du 13 juin 1885.
Obtention du brevet
Le brevet de la statue, obtenu par Bartholdi en 1879.
Le 18 février 1879, Bartholdi obtient un brevet pour sa statue, le brevet D11,023[69],[70].
Ce dernier la décrit en ces termes :
« Une statue représentant la Liberté éclairant le monde, qui consiste, fondamentalement en un personnage féminin drapé, avec un bras levé, portant une torche, alors que l'autre tient une tablette gravée, et avec un diadème sur la tête, en substance comme indiqué plus avant[71]. »
Le brevet précise aussi que le visage de la statue possède des « traits classiques mais graves et calmes »[72], et note que le corps de la statue est légèrement penché sur la gauche afin de reposer sur la jambe gauche, de telle sorte que le monument tienne en équilibre[73]. Il est en outre précisé que la statue est interdite de reproduction « de toute manière connue en art glyphique sous forme de statue ou statuette, ou en haut-relief ou bas-relief, en métal, pierre, terre cuite, plâtre de Paris ou autre composition plastique[74]. »
Acquisition de l'île
Liberty Island en 2011
Bedloe's Island en 1917
La statue est située sur l'île de Liberty Island, dans le port de New York. À l'origine, l'île était connue sous le nom de Bedloe's Island, et servait de base militaire. Elle abritait le Fort Wood construit en granite et dont les fondations en forme d'étoile à onze branches servirent de base pour la construction du socle de la statue. Le tracé géométrique de ce fort a imposé l'orientation de la statue, qui est tournée vers le sud-est dans l'axe de l'un des principaux bastions du fort, face à l'Océan et à l'Europe[75].
Le choix du terrain et son obtention demandèrent plusieurs démarches. Le 3 mars 1877, un jour avant la fin de son mandat, Grant signa une résolution approuvée par le Congrès des États-Unis autorisant le président à préparer un site et accepter la statue lorsque la France la présenterait[76]. W. T. Sherman fut nommé pour aménager le terrain où le monument serait bâti. Il choisit le site de Bedloe's Island[77].
Quinze ans avant l’inauguration, Bartholdi avait déjà envisagé de construire son bâtiment sur l’île de Bedloe. Dans son esprit, elle y était déjà construite et tournée vers son continent d'origine, l'Europe dont elle accueillait et allait continuer d'accueillir les immigrants[78].
Ce n'est qu'en 1956 que le Congrès des États-Unis décida du changement du nom de l'île en Liberty Island, c'est-à-dire « île de la liberté ».
Dernières étapes de la construction, puis l'assemblage
Socle
Élévation de la statue sur Liberty Island, c.1885.
Le socle, avant d'accueillir "Miss Liberty".
Le socle, avant d'accueillir « Miss Liberty ».
La réalisation de l'immense socle de la statue avait été confiée par Bartholdi aux Américains, alors que les Français devaient se charger de la construction de la statue puis de son assemblage. La collecte des fonds nécessaires à la réalisation de l'ouvrage fut placée sous la responsabilité du procureur général, William M. Evarts. Mais elle manquait de financement et les travaux s'arrêtèrent aux fondations, suscitant des critiques de la presse américaine face à ce projet jugé démesuré.
Le journaliste et patron de presse Joseph Pulitzer, « précurseur » américain[6] d'« une presse d'investigation engagée » socialement[6], qui donna son nom au prix Pulitzer, accepta de mettre à la disposition des responsables de la construction les premières pages du New York World afin de récolter de l'argent. Le journal fut également utilisé par son créateur pour critiquer les classes aisées, étant donné leur incapacité à trouver les fonds nécessaires, ainsi que les classes moyennes, qui comptaient sur les plus riches pour le faire. Les critiques acerbes du journal eurent alors des effets positifs, en incitant les donneurs privés à se manifester, tout en procurant au journal une publicité supplémentaire, puisque 50 000 nouveaux abonnés furent enregistrés pendant cette période.
Les fonds nécessaires à la construction du socle imaginé par l'architecte américain Richard Morris Hunt et réalisé par l'ingénieur Charles Pomeroy Stone, furent toutefois rassemblés en août 1884. La première pierre du piédestal, renfermant une copie de la Déclaration d'indépendance des États-Unis[61], fut posée le 5 août 1884.
Le socle est constitué de murs de béton coulé, de six mètres d'épaisseur, recouvert d'un piédestal en blocs de granite rose extrait d'une carrière du Connecticut[79]. L'édification eut lieu entre le 9 octobre 1883 et le 22 août 1886[80]. La partie socle était à la charge des Américains[81],[82]. Lorsque la dernière pierre de l'édifice fut posée, les maçons prirent plusieurs pièces d'argent dans leur poche, et les jetèrent dans le mortier. Les participants à la cérémonie déposèrent leurs cartes de visite, des médailles et des journaux dans un coffret de bronze, déposé dans le socle[83].
Inspiration
Richard Morris Hunt s'est inspiré du socle du phare d'Alexandrie pour réaliser celui de la statue de la Liberté[84] : assis sur une pyramide basse sur des fondations en béton de 16 m de hauteur, le piédestal a une base dorique avec des boucliers sculptés dans la pierre, un fût avec des pierres en bossage et une loggia qui lui redonne une dimension humaine, et un couronnement avec balcon[61]. Au cœur du bloc qui compose le socle, deux séries de poutres rattachent directement la base à la structure interne imaginée par Gustave Eiffel de façon que la statue ne fasse qu'un avec son piédestal.
Traversée de l'Atlantique, assemblage et inauguration
Panneau Histoire de Paris 25, rue de Chazelles.
Statue de la Liberté rue de Chazelles par Paul-Joseph-Victor Dargaud, v. 1885.
Les différentes pièces de la statue furent assemblées à Paris, dans les ateliers Gaget-Gauthier rue de Chazelles, tout près du Parc Monceau, de 1881 à 1884[85],[86]. La statue ainsi montée pour la première fois reçut alors plusieurs visiteurs de marque tels que le président de la République Jules Grévy et l'écrivain Victor Hugo[87]. Le 4 juillet 1884, jour de la fête nationale américaine, eut lieu la cérémonie du don[88] puis le démontage commença en février 1885[89].
La statue est envoyée à Rouen sur deux convois ferroviaires, le premier train de 40 wagons[90] et un second de 30 puis chargée en 16 jours à bord du transport l'Isère[91] commandé par le lieutenant de vaisseau Gabriel Lespinasse de Saune. Le 21 mai, elle descend la Seine[92], débarque à Caudebec-en-Caux ses 5 passagers provisoires[93] puis appareille pour sa traversée transatlantique. Retardée par une tempête ainsi que par une escale à Horta aux Açores pour manque de charbon, elle entre dans le port de New York le 17 juin 1885[94],[95]. L'Isère, escortée par La Flore, vaisseau amiral du contre amiral Henri Lacombe chargé de représenter la France, remonte l'Hudson[96] et jette l'ancre devant Bedloe island le vendredi 19 où elle reçoit un accueil triomphal de la part des New-Yorkais[97]. Afin de rendre la traversée possible à bord d'un tel navire, la statue fut démontée en 350 pièces, réparties dans 214 caisses, en sachant que le bras droit et sa flamme étaient déjà présents sur le sol américain, où ils avaient été exposés une première fois lors de la Centennial Exposition, puis à New York. 36 caisses furent réservées aux rondelles, rivets et boulons nécessaires à l'assemblage[98].
Médaille pour l'inauguration de la statue par Oscar Roty.
Une fois arrivée à destination et déchargée du 22 au 24 juin[99], la chambre de commerce de New york donna un banquet le soir du 24 au « Delmonico's »[100] célèbre restaurant de l'époque. Le 30 juin, le contre-amiral Lacombe rend la politesse à ses hôtes lors d'un banquet à bord de la Flore[101]. La statue doit attendre la fin de la construction de son piédestal et est réassemblée en sept mois à partir du printemps 1886, sur son socle enfin achevé et dont le financement s'était accéléré grâce aux dons de nombreux Américains enthousiastes. Les différentes pièces furent jointes par des rivets en cuivre et le drapé permit de résoudre les problèmes de dilatation[102].
Le 28 octobre 1886, la statue de la Liberté fut inaugurée en présence du président de l'époque[103], Grover Cleveland, ancien gouverneur de New York, devant 600 invités et des milliers de spectateurs[104]. Aucun Noir n'était invité à l'inauguration de ce monument censé aussi inspirer la fin de l'esclavage, pas plus que Joseph Pulitzer, juif et étranger, ou les femmes, d'où la manifestation de suffragettes[61],[64]. C'est Frédéric Desmons, alors vice-président du Sénat, qui représenta la France lors de l'inauguration[105]. Outre Desmons, plusieurs francs-maçons faisaient partie de la délégation française, à laquelle appartenaient également Ferdinand de Lesseps, Eugène Spuller, l'amiral Jaurès, le général Pellissier, le colonel Laussedat et Napoléon Ney[106] accompagnés de journalistes français[107]. Le monument représentait ainsi un cadeau célébrant le centenaire de l'indépendance américaine, livré avec dix années de retard.
Le succès du monument grandit rapidement : dans les deux semaines qui suivirent l'inauguration, près de 20 000 personnes s'étaient pressées pour l'admirer[108]. La fréquentation du site passa de 88 000 visiteurs par an, à 1 million en 1964 et 3 millions en 1987[109].
La statue de la Liberté sur Liberty Island, autochrome, c.1905.
Phare du port de New York
La statue fonctionna comme phare entre la date de son montage, en 1886, et 1902[110]. À cette époque, c'est l'U.S. Lighthouse board qui était chargé d'assurer son fonctionnement. Un gardien de phare avait même été assigné à la statue et la puissance du faisceau lumineux était telle qu'il était visible à une distance de 39 kilomètres[111]. Un générateur d'électricité avait alors été installé sur l'île afin de faire fonctionner la structure.
The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World; French: La Liberté éclairant le monde) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture of a robed and crowned female on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, within New York City. The copper-clad statue, a gift to the United States from the people of France, was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, and its metal framework built by Gustave Eiffel. The statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886.
The statue is a figure of a classically draped woman,[8] likely inspired by the Roman goddess of liberty, Libertas.[9] In a contrapposto pose,[8][10] she holds a torch above her head with her right hand, and in her left hand carries a tabula ansata inscribed JULY IV MDCCLXXVI (July 4, 1776, in Roman numerals), the date of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. With her left foot she steps on a broken chain and shackle,[8] commemorating the national abolition of slavery following the American Civil War.[11][12][13] After its dedication, the statue became an icon of freedom and of the United States, seen as a symbol of welcome to immigrants arriving by sea.
The idea for the statue was conceived in 1865, when the French historian and abolitionist Édouard de Laboulaye proposed a monument to commemorate the upcoming centennial of U.S. independence (1876), the perseverance of American democracy and the liberation of the nation's slaves.[14] The Franco-Prussian War delayed progress until 1875, when Laboulaye proposed that the people of France finance the statue and the United States provide the site and build the pedestal. Bartholdi completed the head and the torch-bearing arm before the statue was fully designed, and these pieces were exhibited for publicity at international expositions.
The torch-bearing arm was displayed at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, and in Madison Square Park in Manhattan from 1876 to 1882. Fundraising proved difficult, especially for the Americans, and by 1885 work on the pedestal was threatened by lack of funds. Publisher Joseph Pulitzer, of the New York World, started a drive for donations to finish the project and attracted more than 120,000 contributors, most of whom gave less than a dollar (equivalent to $35 in 2024). The statue was built in France, shipped overseas in crates, and assembled on the completed pedestal on what was then called Bedloe's Island. The statue's completion was marked by New York's first ticker-tape parade and a dedication ceremony presided over by President Grover Cleveland.
The statue was administered by the United States Lighthouse Board until 1901 and then by the Department of War; since 1933, it has been maintained by the National Park Service as part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument, and is a major tourist attraction. Limited numbers of visitors can access the rim of the pedestal and the interior of the statue's crown from within; public access to the torch has been barred since 1916.
Development
Origin
Leaf disc dedicated to Sol Invictus, sun god of the late Roman Empire. Sol Invictus, along with Libertas the Roman goddess and personification of Liberty, influenced the design of Liberty Enlightening the World.
According to the National Park Service, the idea of a monument presented by the French people to the United States was first proposed by Édouard René de Laboulaye, president of the French Anti-Slavery Society and a prominent and important political thinker of his time. The project is traced to a mid-1865 conversation between Laboulaye, a staunch abolitionist, and Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, a sculptor. In after-dinner conversation at his home near Versailles, Laboulaye, an ardent supporter of the Union in the American Civil War, is supposed to have said: "If a monument should rise in the United States, as a memorial to their independence, I should think it only natural if it were built by united effort—a common work of both our nations."[15] The National Park Service, in a 2000 report, however, deemed this a legend traced to an 1885 fundraising pamphlet, and that the statue was most likely conceived in 1870.[16] In another essay on their website, the Park Service suggested that Laboulaye was minded to honor the Union victory and its consequences, "With the abolition of slavery and the Union's victory in the Civil War in 1865, Laboulaye's wishes of freedom and democracy were turning into a reality in the United States. In order to honor these achievements, Laboulaye proposed that a gift be built for the United States on behalf of France. Laboulaye hoped that by calling attention to the recent achievements of the United States, the French people would be inspired to call for their own democracy in the face of a repressive monarchy."[17]
According to sculptor Bartholdi, who later recounted the story, Laboulaye's alleged comment was not intended as a proposal, but it inspired Bartholdi.[15] Given the repressive nature of the regime of Napoleon III, Bartholdi took no immediate action on the idea except to discuss it with Laboulaye.[15] Bartholdi was in any event busy with other possible projects. In 1856, he traveled to Egypt to study ancient works.[18] In the late 1860s, he approached Isma'il Pasha, Khedive of Egypt, with a plan to build Progress or Egypt Carrying the Light to Asia,[19] a huge lighthouse in the form of an ancient Egyptian female fellah or peasant, robed and holding a torch aloft, at the northern entrance to the Suez Canal in Port Said.[15] Sketches and models were made of the proposed work, though it was never erected. There was a classical precedent for the Suez proposal, the Colossus of Rhodes: an ancient bronze statue of the Greek god of the sun, Helios.[20] This statue is believed to have been over 100 feet (30 m) high, and it similarly stood at a harbor entrance and carried a light to guide ships.[20] Both the khedive and Ferdinand de Lesseps, developer of the Suez Canal, declined the proposed statue from Bartholdi, citing the high cost.[21] The Port Said Lighthouse was built instead, by François Coignet in 1869.
Upon his return from Egypt, Bartholdi visited Giovanni Battista Crespi's sculpture Sancarlone, a 76-foot statue of St Charles Borromeo in repoussé copper covering an iron armature at Lago Maggiore in Italy. He was also familiar with the similar construction of the Vercingétorix monument by Aimé Millet; the restoration of Millet's statue a century later would call international attention to the Statue of Liberty's own poor state of preservation. Bartholdi chose copper over bronze or stone due to its lower cost, weight, and ease of transportation.[18]
Any large project was further delayed by the Franco-Prussian War, in which Bartholdi served as a major of militia. In the war, Napoleon III was captured and deposed. Bartholdi's home province of Alsace was lost to the Prussians, and a more liberal republic was installed in France.[15] As Bartholdi had been planning a trip to the United States, he and Laboulaye decided the time was right to discuss the idea with influential Americans.[22] In June 1871, Bartholdi crossed the Atlantic, with letters of introduction signed by Laboulaye.[23]
Arriving at New York Harbor, Bartholdi focused on Bedloe's Island (now named Liberty Island) as a site for the statue, struck by the fact that vessels arriving in New York had to sail past it. He was delighted to learn that the island was owned by the United States government—it had been ceded by the New York State Legislature in 1800 for harbor defense. It was thus, as he put it in a letter to Laboulaye: "land common to all the states."[24] As well as meeting many influential New Yorkers, Bartholdi visited President Ulysses S. Grant, who assured him that it would not be difficult to obtain the site for the statue.[25] Bartholdi crossed the United States twice by rail, and met many Americans whom he thought would be sympathetic to the project.[23] But he remained concerned that popular opinion on both sides of the Atlantic was insufficiently supportive of the proposal, and he and Laboulaye decided to wait before mounting a public campaign.[26]
Bartholdi's 1880 sculpture, Lion of Belfort
Bartholdi had made a first model of his concept in 1870.[27] The son of a friend of Bartholdi's, artist John LaFarge, later maintained that Bartholdi made the first sketches for the statue during his visit to La Farge's Rhode Island studio. Bartholdi continued to develop the concept following his return to France.[27] He also worked on a number of sculptures designed to bolster French patriotism after the defeat by the Prussians. One of these was the Lion of Belfort, a monumental sculpture carved in sandstone below the fortress of Belfort, which during the war had resisted a Prussian siege for over three months. The defiant lion, 73 feet (22 m) long and half that in height, displays an emotional quality characteristic of Romanticism, which Bartholdi would later bring to the Statue of Liberty.[28]
Design, style, and symbolism
Detail from a 1855–56 fresco by Constantino Brumidi in the Capitol in Washington, D.C., showing two early symbols of America: Columbia (left) and the Indian princess
Bartholdi and Laboulaye considered how best to express the idea of American liberty.[29] In early American history, two female figures were frequently used as cultural symbols of the nation.[30] One of these symbols, the personified Columbia, was seen as an embodiment of the United States in the manner that Britannia was identified with the United Kingdom, and Marianne came to represent France. Columbia had supplanted the traditional European Personification of the Americas as an "Indian princess", which had come to be regarded as uncivilized and derogatory toward Americans.[30] The other significant female icon in American culture was a representation of Liberty, derived from Libertas, the goddess of freedom widely worshipped in ancient Rome, especially among emancipated slaves. A Liberty figure adorned most American coins of the time,[29] and representations of Liberty appeared in popular and civic art, including Thomas Crawford's Statue of Freedom (1863) atop the dome of the United States Capitol Building.[29]
The statue's design evokes iconography evident in ancient history including the Egyptian goddess Isis, the ancient Greek deity of the same name, the Roman Columbia and the Christian iconography of the Virgin Mary.[31][32]
Thomas Crawford's Statue of Freedom (1854–1857) tops the dome of the Capitol building in Washington.
Artists of the 18th and 19th centuries striving to evoke republican ideals commonly used representations of Libertas as an allegorical symbol.[29] A figure of Liberty was also depicted on the Great Seal of France.[29] However, Bartholdi and Laboulaye avoided an image of revolutionary liberty such as that depicted in Eugène Delacroix's famed Liberty Leading the People (1830). In this painting, which commemorates France's July Revolution, a half-clothed Liberty leads an armed mob over the bodies of the fallen.[30] Laboulaye had no sympathy for revolution, and so Bartholdi's figure would be fully dressed in flowing robes.[30] Instead of the impression of violence in the Delacroix work, Bartholdi wished to give the statue a peaceful appearance and chose a torch, representing progress, for the figure to hold.[33] Its second toe on both feet is longer than its big toe, a condition known as Morton's toe or 'Greek foot'. This was an aesthetic staple of ancient Greek art and reflects the classical influences on the statue.[34]
Crawford's statue was designed in the early 1850s. It was originally to be crowned with a pileus or "liberty cap", the cap given to emancipated slaves in ancient Rome. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, a Southerner who would later serve as President of the Confederate States of America, was concerned that the pileus would be taken as an abolitionist symbol. He ordered that it be changed to a helmet.[35] Delacroix's figure wears a pileus,[30] and Bartholdi at first considered placing one on his figure as well. Instead, he used a radiate halo, nimbus,[12] to top its head.[36] In so doing, he avoided a reference to Marianne, who invariably wears a pileus.[37] Many believed they evoke the sun, the seven seas, and the seven continents,[38][8] and represent another means, besides the torch, whereby Liberty enlightens the world,[33] but research has not confirmed this.[12]
Bartholdi's early models were all similar in concept: a female figure in neoclassical style representing liberty, wearing a stola and pella (gown and cloak, common in depictions of Roman goddesses) and holding a torch aloft. According to popular accounts, the face was modeled after that of Augusta Charlotte Beysser Bartholdi, the sculptor's mother,[39] but Regis Huber, the curator of the Bartholdi Museum is on record as saying that this, as well as other similar speculations, have no basis in fact.[40] He designed the figure with austere face[8] and a strong, uncomplicated silhouette, which would be set off well by its dramatic harbor placement and allow passengers on vessels entering New York Bay to experience a changing perspective on the statue as they proceeded toward Manhattan. He gave it bold classical contours and applied simplified modeling, reflecting the huge scale of the project and its solemn purpose.[33] Bartholdi wrote of his technique:
The surfaces should be broad and simple, defined by a bold and clear design, accentuated in the important places. The enlargement of the details or their multiplicity is to be feared. By exaggerating the forms, in order to render them more clearly visible, or by enriching them with details, we would destroy the proportion of the work. Finally, the model, like the design, should have a summarized character, such as one would give to a rapid sketch. Only it is necessary that this character should be the product of volition and study, and that the artist, concentrating his knowledge, should find the form and the line in its greatest simplicity.[41]
Statue of Liberty from the back
Liberty is depicted in a contrapposto pose, with a raised right foot amidst a broken shackle and chain.
Bartholdi made alterations in the design as the project evolved. Bartholdi considered having Liberty hold a broken chain, but decided this would be too divisive in the days after the Civil War. The erected statue does stride over a broken chain, half-hidden by her robes and difficult to see from the ground.[36] Her right foot is raised and set back, in a classical contrapposto pose that looks stationary when viewed from the front, but dynamic when viewed from the side,[8] signifying a solid footing and a posture more relaxed than that of two feet set side by side, and introducing a sense of tension between standing and moving forward, both physically and mentally.[10] The upright form and outstretched leg may have also helped to stabilize the statue.[10] Bartholdi was initially uncertain of what to place in Liberty's left hand; he settled on a tabula ansata,[42] used to evoke the concept of law.[43] Though Bartholdi greatly admired the United States Constitution, he chose to inscribe JULY IV MDCCLXXVI on the tablet, thus associating the date of the country's Declaration of Independence with the concept of liberty.[42]
Bartholdi interested his friend and mentor, architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, in the project.[40] As chief engineer,[40] Viollet-le-Duc proposed designing a brick pier filled with sand within the statue up to the hips, with iron bars like veins of a leaf to which the skin would be anchored.[18] After consultations with the metalwork foundry Gaget, Gauthier & Co., Viollet-le-Duc chose the metal which would be used for the skin, copper sheets, and the method used to shape it, repoussé, in which the sheets were heated and then struck with wooden hammers.[40][44] An advantage of this choice was that the entire statue would be light for its volume, as the copper need be only 0.094 inches (2.4 mm) thick. Bartholdi had decided on a height of just over 151 feet (46 m) for the statue, double that of Italy's Sancarlone and the German statue of Arminius, both made with the same method.[45] Viollet le Duc also designed the pleats of the dress.[46]
Announcement and early work
By 1875, France was enjoying improved political stability and a recovering postwar economy. Growing interest in the upcoming Centennial Exposition to be held in Philadelphia led Laboulaye to decide it was time to seek public support.[47] In September 1875, he announced the project and the formation of the Franco-American Union as its fundraising arm. With the announcement, the statue was given a name, Liberty Enlightening the World.[48] The French people were to finance the statue (contrary to the common misconception of it being funded by the French national government);[49] and Americans would be expected to pay for the pedestal.[50] The announcement provoked a generally favorable reaction in France, though many Frenchmen resented the United States for not coming to their aid during the war with Prussia.[48] French monarchists opposed the statue, if for no other reason than it was proposed by the liberal Laboulaye, who had recently been elected a senator for life.[50] Laboulaye arranged events designed to appeal to the rich and powerful, including a special performance at the Paris Opera on April 25, 1876, that featured a new cantata by the composer Charles Gounod. The piece was titled La Liberté éclairant le monde, the French version of the statue's announced name.[48]
Stereoscopic image of right arm and torch of the Statue of Liberty, 1876 Centennial Exposition
Initially focused on the elites, the Union was successful in raising funds from across French society. Schoolchildren and ordinary citizens gave, as did 181 French municipalities. Laboulaye's political allies supported the call, as did descendants of the French contingent in the American Revolutionary War. Less idealistically, contributions came from those who hoped for American support in the French attempt to build the Panama Canal. The copper may have come from multiple sources and some of it is said to have come from a mine in Visnes, Norway,[51] though this has not been conclusively determined after testing samples.[52] According to Cara Sutherland in her book on the statue for the Museum of the City of New York, 200,000 pounds (91,000 kg) was needed to build the statue, and the French copper industrialist Eugène Secrétan donated 128,000 pounds (58,000 kg) of copper.[53]
Although plans for the statue had not been finalized, Bartholdi moved forward with fabrication of the right arm, bearing the torch, and the head. Work began at the Gaget, Gauthier & Co. workshop.[54] In May 1876, Bartholdi traveled to the United States as a member of a French delegation to the Centennial Exhibition,[55] and arranged for a huge painting of the statue to be shown in New York as part of the Centennial festivities.[56] The arm did not arrive in Philadelphia until August; because of its late arrival, it was not listed in the exhibition catalogue, and while some reports correctly identified the work, others called it the "Colossal Arm" or "Bartholdi Electric Light". The exhibition grounds contained a number of monumental artworks to compete for fairgoers' interest, including an outsized fountain designed by Bartholdi.[57] Nevertheless, the arm proved popular in the exhibition's waning days, and visitors would climb up to the balcony of the torch to view the fairgrounds.[58] After the exhibition closed, the arm was transported to New York City, where it remained on display in Madison Square Park for several years before it was returned to France to join the rest of the statue.[58]
During his second trip to the United States, Bartholdi addressed a number of groups about the project, and urged the formation of American committees of the Franco-American Union.[59] Committees to raise money to pay for the foundation and pedestal were formed in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia.[60] The New York group eventually took on most of the responsibility for American fundraising and is often referred to as the "American Committee".[61] One of its members was 19-year-old Theodore Roosevelt, the future governor of New York and president of the United States.[59] On March 3, 1877, on his final full day in office, President Grant signed a joint resolution that authorized the President to accept the statue when it was presented by France and to select a site for it. President Rutherford B. Hayes, who took office the following day, selected the Bedloe's Island site that Bartholdi had proposed.[62]
Construction in France
The statue's head on exhibit at the Paris World's Fair, 1878
On his return to Paris in 1877, Bartholdi concentrated on completing the head, which was exhibited at the 1878 Paris World's Fair. Fundraising continued, with models of the statue put on sale. Tickets to view the construction activity at the Gaget, Gauthier & Co. workshop were also offered.[63] The French government authorized a lottery; among the prizes were valuable silver plate and a terracotta model of the statue. By the end of 1879, about 250,000 francs had been raised.[64]
The head and arm had been built with assistance from Viollet-le-Duc, who fell ill in 1879. He soon died, leaving no indication of how he intended to transition from the copper skin to his proposed masonry pier.[65][66] The following year, Bartholdi was able to obtain the services of the innovative designer and builder Gustave Eiffel.[63] Eiffel and his structural engineer, Maurice Koechlin, decided to abandon the pier and instead build an iron truss tower. Eiffel opted not to use a completely rigid structure, which would force stresses to accumulate in the skin and lead eventually to cracking. A secondary skeleton was attached to the center pylon, then, to enable the statue to move slightly in the winds of New York Harbor, and, since the metal would expand on hot summer days, he loosely connected the support structure to the skin using flat iron bars[40] or springs,[67] which culminated in a mesh of metal straps, known as "saddles", that were riveted to the skin, providing firm support. In a labor-intensive process, each saddle had to be crafted individually.[68][69] To prevent galvanic corrosion between the copper skin and the iron support structure, Eiffel insulated the skin with asbestos impregnated with shellac.[70]
Eiffel's design made the statue one of the earliest examples of curtain wall construction, in which the exterior of the structure is not load bearing, but is instead supported by an interior framework. He included two interior spiral staircases, to make it easier for visitors to reach the observation point in the crown.[71] Access to an observation platform surrounding the torch was also provided, but the narrowness of the arm allowed for only a single ladder, 40 feet (12 m) long.[72] As the pylon tower arose, Eiffel and Bartholdi coordinated their work carefully so that completed segments of skin would fit exactly on the support structure.[73] The components of the pylon tower were built in the Eiffel factory in the nearby Parisian suburb of Levallois-Perret.[74]
The change in structural material from masonry to iron allowed Bartholdi to change his plans for the statue's assembly. He had originally expected to assemble the skin on-site as the masonry pier was built; instead, he decided to build the statue in France and have it disassembled and transported to the United States for reassembly in place on Bedloe's Island.[75]
In a symbolic act, the first rivet placed into the skin, fixing a copper plate onto the statue's big toe, was driven by United States Ambassador to France Levi P. Morton.[76] The skin was not, however, crafted in exact sequence from low to high; work proceeded on a number of segments simultaneously in a manner often confusing to visitors.[77] Some work was performed by contractors—one of the fingers was made to Bartholdi's exacting specifications by a coppersmith in the southern French town of Montauban.[78] By 1882, the statue was complete up to the waist, an event Bartholdi celebrated by inviting reporters to lunch on a platform built within the statue.[79] Laboulaye died in 1883. He was succeeded as chairman of the French committee by Lesseps. The completed statue was formally presented to Ambassador Morton at a ceremony in Paris on July 4, 1884, and Lesseps announced that the French government had agreed to pay for its transport to New York.[80] The statue remained intact in Paris pending sufficient progress on the pedestal; by January 1885, this had occurred and the statue was disassembled and crated for its ocean voyage.[81]
Richard Morris Hunt's pedestal under construction in June 1885
The committees in the United States faced great difficulties in obtaining funds for the construction of the pedestal. The Panic of 1873 had led to an economic depression that persisted through much of the decade. The Liberty statue project was not the only such undertaking that had difficulty raising money: construction of the obelisk later known as the Washington Monument sometimes stalled for years; it would ultimately take over three-and-a-half decades to complete.[82] There was criticism both of Bartholdi's statue and of the fact that the gift required Americans to foot the bill for the pedestal. In the years following the Civil War, most Americans preferred realistic artworks depicting heroes and events from the nation's history, rather than allegorical works like the Liberty statue.[82] There was also a feeling that Americans should design American public works—the selection of Italian-born Constantino Brumidi to decorate the Capitol had provoked intense criticism, even though he was a naturalized U.S. citizen.[83] Harper's Weekly declared its wish that "M. Bartholdi and our French cousins had 'gone the whole figure' while they were about it, and given us statue and pedestal at once."[84] The New York Times stated that "no true patriot can countenance any such expenditures for bronze females in the present state of our finances."[85] Faced with these criticisms, the American committees took little action for several years.[85]
Design
Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, June 1885, showing (clockwise from left) woodcuts of the completed statue in Paris, Bartholdi, and the statue's interior structure
The foundation of Bartholdi's statue was to be laid inside Fort Wood, a disused army base on Bedloe's Island constructed between 1807 and 1811. Since 1823, it had rarely been used, though during the Civil War, it had served as a recruiting station.[86] The fortifications of the structure were in the shape of an eleven-point star. The statue's foundation and pedestal were aligned so that it would face southeast, greeting ships entering the harbor from the Atlantic Ocean.[87] In 1881, the New York committee commissioned Richard Morris Hunt to design the pedestal. Within months, Hunt submitted a detailed plan, indicating that he expected construction to take about nine months.[88] He proposed a pedestal 114 feet (35 m) in height; faced with money problems, the committee reduced that to 89 feet (27 m).[89]
Hunt's pedestal design contains elements of classical architecture, including Doric portals, as well as some elements influenced by Aztec architecture.[40] The large mass is fragmented with architectural detail, in order to focus attention on the statue.[89] In form, it is a truncated pyramid, 62 feet (19 m) square at the base and 39.4 feet (12.0 m) at the top. The four sides are identical in appearance. Above the door on each side, there are ten disks upon which Bartholdi proposed to place the coats of arms of the states (between 1876 and 1889, there were 38 of them), although this was not done. Above that, a balcony was placed on each side, framed by pillars. Bartholdi placed an observation platform near the top of the pedestal, above which the statue itself rises.[90] According to author Louis Auchincloss, the pedestal "craggily evokes the power of an ancient Europe over which rises the dominating figure of the Statue of Liberty".[89] The committee hired former army General Charles Pomeroy Stone to oversee the construction work.[91] Construction on the 15-foot-deep (4.6 m) foundation began in 1883, and the pedestal's cornerstone was laid in 1884.[88] In Hunt's original conception, the pedestal was to have been made of solid granite. Financial concerns again forced him to revise his plans; the final design called for poured concrete walls, up to 20 feet (6.1 m) thick, faced with granite blocks.[92][93] This Stony Creek granite came from the Beattie Quarry in Branford, Connecticut.[94] The concrete mass was the largest poured to that time.[93]
Norwegian immigrant civil engineer Joachim Goschen Giæver designed the structural framework for the Statue of Liberty. His work involved design computations, detailed fabrication and construction drawings, and oversight of construction. In completing his engineering for the statue's frame, Giæver worked from drawings and sketches produced by Gustave Eiffel.[95]
Fundraising
Fundraising in the U.S. for the pedestal had begun in 1882. The committee organized a large number of money-raising events.[96] As part of one such effort, an auction of art and manuscripts, poet Emma Lazarus was asked to donate an original work. She initially declined, stating she could not write a poem about a statue. At the time, she was also involved in aiding refugees to New York who had fled antisemitic pogroms in eastern Europe. These refugees were forced to live in conditions that the wealthy Lazarus had never experienced. She saw a way to express her empathy for these refugees in terms of the statue.[97] The resulting sonnet, "The New Colossus", including the lines "Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free", is uniquely identified with the Statue of Liberty in American culture and is inscribed on a plaque in its museum.[98] Lazarus's poem contrasted the classical Colossus of Rhodes as a frightening symbol, with the new "American colossus" as a "beacon to the lost and hopeless".[99]
Liberty Enlightening the World, or The Statue of Liberty, a stained glass window commissioned by Joseph Pulitzer to commemorate fundraising for the pedestal. Originally installed in the New York World Building, it is currently located in Pulitzer Hall at Columbia University.[100]
Even with these efforts, fundraising lagged. Grover Cleveland, the governor of New York, vetoed a bill to provide $50,000 for the statue project in 1884. An attempt the next year to have Congress provide $100,000, sufficient to complete the project, also failed. The New York committee, with only $3,000 in the bank, suspended work on the pedestal. With the project in jeopardy, groups from other American cities, including Boston and Philadelphia, offered to pay the full cost of erecting the statue in return for relocating it.[101]
Joseph Pulitzer, publisher of the New York World, a New York newspaper, announced a drive to raise $100,000 (equivalent to $3,500,000 in 2024). Pulitzer pledged to print the name of every contributor, no matter how small the amount given.[102] The drive captured the imagination of New Yorkers, especially when Pulitzer began publishing the notes he received from contributors. "A young girl alone in the world" donated "60 cents, the result of self denial."[103] One donor gave "five cents as a poor office boy's mite toward the Pedestal Fund." A group of children sent a dollar as "the money we saved to go to the circus with."[104] Another dollar was given by a "lonely and very aged woman."[103] Residents of a home for alcoholics in New York's rival city of Brooklyn—the cities would not merge until 1898—donated $15; other drinkers helped out through donation boxes in bars and saloons.[105] A kindergarten class in Davenport, Iowa, mailed the World a gift of $1.35.[103] As the donations flooded in, the committee resumed work on the pedestal.[106] France raised about $250,000 to build the statue,[107] while the United States had to raise up to $300,000 to build the pedestal.[108][109]
Construction
On June 17, 1885, the French steamer Isère arrived in New York with the crates holding the disassembled statue on board. New Yorkers displayed their newfound enthusiasm for the statue. Two hundred thousand people lined the docks and hundreds of boats put to sea to welcome the ship.[110][111] After five months' daily calls to donate to the statue fund, on August 11, 1885, the World announced that $102,000 had been raised from 120,000 donors, and that 80 percent of the total had been received in sums of less than one dollar (equivalent to $35 in 2024).[112]
Even with the success of the fund drive, the pedestal was not completed until April 1886. Immediately thereafter, reassembly of the statue began. Eiffel's iron framework was anchored to steel I-beams within the concrete pedestal and assembled.[113] Once this was done, the sections of skin were carefully attached.[114] Due to the width of the pedestal, it was not possible to erect scaffolding, and workers dangled from ropes while installing the skin sections.[115] Bartholdi had planned to put floodlights on the torch's balcony to illuminate it; a week before the dedication, the Army Corps of Engineers vetoed the proposal, fearing that ships' pilots passing the statue would be blinded. Instead, Bartholdi cut portholes in the torch—which was covered with gold leaf—and placed the lights inside them.[116] A power plant was installed on the island to light the torch and for other electrical needs.[117] After the skin was completed, landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, co-designer of Manhattan's Central Park and Brooklyn's Prospect Park, supervised a cleanup of Bedloe's Island in anticipation of the dedication.[118] General Charles Stone claimed on the day of dedication that no man had died during the construction of the statue; this was not true, as Francis Longo, a thirty-nine-year-old Italian laborer, had been killed when an old wall fell on him.[119] When built, the statue was reddish-brown and shiny, but within twenty years it had oxidized to its current green color through reactions with air, water and acidic pollution, forming a layer of verdigris which protects the copper from further corrosion.[120]
Dedication
Unveiling of the Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World (1886) by Edward Moran. Oil on canvas. The J. Clarence Davies Collection, Museum of the City of New York.
The 1886 invitation to the inauguration of Liberty Enlightening the World
A ceremony of dedication was held on the afternoon of October 28, 1886. President Grover Cleveland, the former New York governor, presided over the event.[121] On the morning of the dedication, a parade was held in New York City; estimates of the number of people who watched it ranged from several hundred thousand to a million. President Cleveland headed the procession, then stood in the reviewing stand to see bands and marchers from across America. General Stone was the grand marshal of the parade. The route began at Madison Square, once the venue for the arm, and proceeded to the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan by way of Fifth Avenue and Broadway, with a slight detour so the parade could pass in front of the World building on Park Row. As the parade passed the New York Stock Exchange, traders threw ticker tape from the windows, beginning the New York tradition of the ticker-tape parade.[122]
A nautical parade began at 12:45 p.m., and President Cleveland embarked on a yacht that took him across the harbor to Bedloe's Island for the dedication.[123] Lesseps made the first speech, on behalf of the French committee, followed by the chairman of the New York committee, Senator William M. Evarts. A French flag draped across the statue's face was to be lowered to unveil the statue at the close of Evarts's speech, but Bartholdi mistook a pause as the conclusion and let the flag fall prematurely. The ensuing cheers put an end to Evarts's address.[122] President Cleveland spoke next, stating that the statue's "stream of light shall pierce the darkness of ignorance and man's oppression until Liberty enlightens the world".[124] Bartholdi, observed near the dais, was called upon to speak, but he declined. Orator Chauncey M. Depew concluded the speechmaking with a lengthy address.[125]
No members of the general public were permitted on the island during the ceremonies, which were reserved entirely for dignitaries. The only women granted access were Bartholdi's wife and Lesseps's granddaughter; officials stated that they feared women might be injured in the crush of people. The restriction offended area suffragists, who chartered a boat and got as close as they could to the island. The group's leaders made speeches applauding the embodiment of Liberty as a woman and advocating women's right to vote.[124] A scheduled fireworks display was postponed until November 1 because of poor weather.
Shortly after the dedication, The Cleveland Gazette, an African American newspaper, suggested that the statue's torch not be lit until the United States became a free nation "in reality":
"Liberty enlightening the world," indeed! The expression makes us sick. This government is a howling farce. It can not or rather does not protect its citizens within its own borders. Shove the Bartholdi statue, torch and all, into the ocean until the "liberty" of this country is such as to make it possible for an inoffensive and industrious colored man to earn a respectable living for himself and family, without being ku-kluxed, perhaps murdered, his daughter and wife outraged, and his property destroyed. The idea of the "liberty" of this country "enlightening the world," or even Patagonia, is ridiculous in the extreme.
The cabinet card was a style of photograph which was widely used for photographic portraiture after 1870. It consisted of a thin photograph mounted on a card typically measuring 108 by 165 mm (4 1⁄4 by 6 1⁄2 inches).
The carte de visite was quickly replaced by the larger cabinet card. In the early 1860s, both types of photographs were essentially the same in process and design. Both were most often albumen prints; the primary difference being the cabinet card was larger and usually included extensive logos and information on the reverse side of the card to advertise the photographer’s services. However, later into its popularity, other types of papers began to replace the albumen process. Despite the similarity, the cabinet card format was initially used for landscape views before it was adopted for portraiture.
Some cabinet card images from the 1890s have the appearance of a black-and-white photograph in contrast to the distinctive sepia toning notable in the albumen print process. These photographs have a neutral image tone and were most likely produced on a matte collodion, gelatin or gelatin bromide paper.
Sometimes images from this period can be identified by a greenish cast. Gelatin papers were introduced in the 1870s and started gaining acceptance in the 1880s and 1890s as the gelatin bromide papers became popular. Matte collodion was used in the same period. A true black-and-white image on a cabinet card is likely to have been produced in the 1890s or after 1900. The last cabinet cards were produced in the 1920s, even as late as 1924.
Owing to the larger image size, the cabinet card steadily increased in popularity during the second half of the 1860s and into the 1870s, replacing the carte de visite as the most popular form of portraiture. The cabinet card was large enough to be easily viewed from across the room when typically displayed on a cabinet, which is probably why they became known as such in the vernacular. However, when the renowned Civil War photographer, Mathew Brady, first started offering them to his clientele towards the end of 1865, he used the trademark "Imperial Carte-de-Visite."[1] Whatever the name, the popular print format joined the photograph album as a fixture in the late 19th-century Victorian parlor.
The reverse side of the card as seen above.
Ironically, early into its introduction, the cabinet card ushered in the temporary demise of the photographic album which had come into existence commercially with the carte de visite. Photographers began employing artists to retouch photographs (by altering the negative before making the print) to hide facial defects revealed by the new format. Small stands and photograph frames for the table top replaced the heavy photograph album. Photo album manufacturers responded by producing albums with pages primarily for cabinet cards with a few pages in the back reserved for the old family carte de visite prints.
For nearly three decades after the 1860s, the commercial portraiture industry was dominated by the carte de visite and cabinet card formats. In the decade before 1900 the number and variety of card photograph styles expanded in response to declining sales. Manufactures of standardized card stock and print materials hoped to stimulate sales and retain public interest in card photographs. However, as with all technological innovations, the public increasingly demanded outdoor and candid photographs with enlarged prints which they could frame or smaller unmounted snapshots they could collect in scrapbooks.
In no small part owing to the immense popularity of the affordable Kodak Box Brownie camera, first introduced in 1900, the public increasingly began taking their own photographs, and thus the popularity of the cabinet card declined.
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