To create the skeleton on which the skin would be assembled, he called on Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, designer of Paris’ Eiffel Tower. Bartholdi, who was said to have modeled the woman’s face after that of his mother, hammered large copper sheets to create the statue’s “skin” (using a technique called repousse). Bartholdi’s massive creation, titled “Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World,” depicted a woman holding a torch in her raised right hand and a tablet in her left, upon which was engraved “ July 4, 1776,” the adoption date of the Declaration of Independence. Visitor access to the Statue of Liberty's torch was halted for good after German operatives set off an explosion on the nearby Black Tom peninsula in July 1916, during World War I.ĭue to the need to raise funds for the statue, work on the sculpture did not begin until 1875. The project would be a joint effort between the two countries–the French people were responsible for the statue and its assembly, while the Americans would build the pedestal on which it would stand–and a symbol of the friendship between their peoples.ĭid you know? The base of the Statue of Liberty's pedestal contains exhibits on the monument's history, including the original 1886 torch. The sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, known for largescale sculptures, earned the commission the goal was to design the sculpture in time for the centennial of the Declaration of Independence in 1876. Around 1865, as the American Civil War drew to a close, the French historian Edouard de Laboulaye proposed that France create a statue to give to the United States in celebration of that nation’s success in building a viable democracy.
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