(JNi.media) French sculptor Auguste Bartholdi (1834–1904) was the man who designed the Statue of Liberty, which was given as a lovely gift from the French nation to the people of America. But according to the US National Park Service, the most recognizable icon of the US and of NY City began her life inside Bartholdi’s head as an Egyptian, and a very large Egyptian at that.
From 1855 to 1856, relates the NPS website, Auguste Bartholdi participated in an extensive trip through Europe and the Middle East, and when he saw the Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, Bartholdi decided that’s what he was meant to do — create huge public monuments and giant sculptures.
In 1869, the Egyptian government was looking to design a lighthouse for the Suez Canal. Bartholdi happily went to work and designed a colossal statue of a robed woman holding a torch, which he called “Egypt (or, alternately, Progress) Brings Light to Asia.” But on the occasion of the canal’s inauguration, however, Bartholdi was told the lighthouse project was off.
Bartholdi was disappointed, but did not react like some other irate artists who destroy their works in fits of rage. And when Edouard de Laboulaye proposed that a monument representing freedom and democracy be created as a gift for the United States, Bartholdi recycled his drafts and sent them in. In 1870 he began designing the Statue of “Liberty Enlightening the World,” same lady, but this time instead of staring at faraway Turkey, she would be training her enormous eyes on faraway Europe.
Bartholdi made several trips to the US, but the moment he first entered New York harbor by ship, he saw where he knew the Statue must stand: Bedloe’s Island. New York was the gateway to America and Bedloe’s Island was the gateway to New York, and Bartholdi envisioned the Statue rising out of the star-shaped Fort Wood. And since all artists must also be business people, Bartholdi used his trips to stir up support for his Statue. When he returned to Paris in 1872, he used his American contacts to help de Laboulaye raise 400,000 francs to fund the construction.
Bartholdi came to America one more time in 1876, to show off the Statue’s massive arm and torch at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Afterwards the pieces were displayed in Madison Square Park, Manhattan, until 1882, to help Joseph Pulitzer in fundraising for the pedestal. The statue was constructed in France (by Gustave Eiffel), shipped overseas in crates, and assembled on the completed pedestal on what was then called Bedloe’s Island. The statue’s completion was marked on October 28, 1886 by New York’s first ticker-tape parade and a dedication ceremony presided over by President Grover Cleveland.