Building the Statue of Liberty: Liberty Enlightens the World
A powerful international symbol of opportunity, freedom, and political liberty, how did the Statue of Liberty first achieve its iconic status?
In the early decades of the 19th century, as America’s colonial and revolutionary heroes were passing away, Americans began to write histories of the young Republic. Joining these words were powerful images of America’s past like Plymouth Rock, the allegorical figure of Columbia, and the Liberty Bell. At the time of the Civil War, Thomas Crawford’s sculpture Freedom Triumphant in War and Peace, as it was then called, was set atop the dome of the Capitol in Washington.
Visual Americana, whether as illustrations, prints, engravings, or graphic designs, took up these these powerful symbols. It transformed them into icons, but they remained rooted in our own history, our own past.
Americans, however, are not people of the past! We are people of frontiers, new inventions, travel—people of the future. Immigrants flocked to America attracted by the mere hope of opportunity. America needed a new, international, “rock-star-famous” kind of symbol and we sure got one thanks to French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi.
Bartholdi’s colossal sculpture, Liberty Enlightening the World, is better known to us as the Statue of Liberty. It was formally dedicated in New York City’s harbor on October 28, 1886. However, it was born as an icon not in copper, iron, and steel, but first on paper! Bartholdi patented his design for the Statue of Liberty on February 18, 1879. The patent includes a drawing of the statue as we know it.
Before this, however, in 1875, at least two other images of this same familiar image of the Statue of Liberty appeared in print. Here they are:
These rare items—an illustrated broadside, a photographically-illustrated subscription card, a lottery ticket, a color print—were solicitations for money to erect the Statue of Liberty. Each depict the statue on its familiar pedestal on Bedloe’s Island in New York City’s harbor. Although Bartholdi favored it, Bedloe’s Island had not even then been formally selected as the site for the completed monument.
These images are literally foundational.
The two images of the statue on the broadside and on the card are different from each other. Interestingly, the image on the card has been reproduced photographically and may well have been taken directly from the artist’s original drawing. Together, these two images may well depict the earliest known printed views of the Statue of Liberty. This is the birth of an icon.
These rare, foundational documents of the iconic Statue of Liberty rank high on the list of America’s visual iconography; as firm a footing and gravitas as the iconography of Plymouth Rock and the Liberty Bell.
Through paper, ink, and photography, they served as the blueprints and the encouraging and hopeful visual medium to bring forth the reality, a statue of Liberty.
Subscription for the Building of a Commemorative Monument of the Centennial Anniversary of United States Independance [sic] Erected in Remembrance of the Ancient friendship of France and America. [Additionally, offered with three historical items documenting the planned construction of the Statue of Liberty]. Paris: Le Comité de L’Union Franco-Américaine, [1875]. Illustrated Broadside: 15 x 11 inches. Printed, in red and black in French and English on wove paper. Fold lines; small closed margin tears; minor chipping along edges.
[With:] A related photographically illustrated subscription card, [1875]. A miniature original albumen photograph—similar to the artist’s rendition seen on the broadside—is incorporated within the design (and is mounted upon) the invitation card. The invitation card further has an embossed circular seal, in blind, showing hands clasping, across waters. The words “Union Franco–Amêricaine Comite de Souscription” are seen within this circle.
[With:] An illustrated lottery ticket, [1879]. The image seen is the same as the following, but it is not colored. In vertical letters it bears the Paris imprint: “Imp. A. Chaix et Cie”. The verso explains all of the terms of the lottery and states the drawing will be held at the end of 1879. (Thus a date attribution of 1879 although conceivably the lottery ticket was printed at the end of 1878 in preparation for the year 1879.)
[With:] A small color print of the Statue of Liberty issued by the Union Franco-Américaine, (1883). Imagined, the Statue of Liberty in New York City’s harbor issued by the Union Franco-Américaine in 1883. This print was issued as a souvenir to visitors to the Paris workshop of Gaget-Gauthier et Cie. where Barthholdi’s statue was fabricated. The print is entitled Monument Commémoratif du Centième Anniversaire de l’Indépendance des États-Unis.
References and Notes
1. OCLC 460846951 at the BnF only. The Bibliothèque nationale de France appears to hold a copy of this broadside or circular (“In-4°. Pièce”), but do not provide dimensions. It is plausible our example was trimmed at the bottom where contributors could subscribe their pledges. The BnF’s record makes no mention of the photographically illustrated Card of Invitation. The survival of our card today is likely because it was never filled in; presumably the Committee would receive the funds from the subscriber, record the name, and discard the card.
OCLC 459306140 (1 copy at the BnF ) is similarly-titled to our item. The BnF’s record describes a 7p. item, in 27cm, but then leads to a digitized example (only) of what is noted in their record a “Circulaire-prospectus” which illustrates the item, but exceeding 7 pages. Our broadside circular may (or may not) have been laid into or issued integral with this pamphlet. Viewing BnF’s digitized example, we see a subscription form comprising one of the pages; suggesting our broadside circular did not have a subscription form along the bottom margin.
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