France gave the iconic statue to the United States in 1886
A COLUMN By Kathryn Ross
I read on a news feed recently that with everything that is going on in the United States, the deportation of immigrants, threats to civil rights and erosion of democracy, a French politician has suggested the US give back the Statue of Liberty.
Member of the European Parliament Raphael Glucksmann said, “We’re going to say to the Americans who have chosen to side with the tyrants, to the Americans who fired researchers for demanding scientific freedom, give us back the Statue of Liberty. We gave it to you as a gift, but apparently you despise it, so it will be just fine here at home.”
Somewhere I heard or read that America said no to the proposal.
The Statue of Liberty is inspiring to those (which is almost all of us) with immigrant blood running red, white and blue in our veins. I get a little tingle of pride every time I see her depicted in a movie whether it’s “Yentle” or Season 2 of “1923”.
It was given to this country in 1886 by the French to celebrate this country’s Centennial. It was a little late because France was preoccupied fighting the Franco-Prussian War. But the head and the right arm holding the torch of freedom were completed earlier. They were put on display in the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. Afterwards they were displayed for several years in Manhattan, before the rest of the statue arrived.
Edward Rene de Laboulaye, an ardent abolitionist, conceived the idea of the statue after the American Civil War resulted in the emancipation from slavery. Historians say the idea was that it would stand as an emblem of the friendship between the French and the Americans, and a sign of their mutual desire for liberty. He also hoped it would inspire the French people to call for their own democracy in the face of the repressive monarchy of Napoleon III. It was well after the French Revolution.
The statue was designed by French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. Contrary to common belief, according to historians, it was not modeled after his mother.
It cost the French around $250,000 in US money to build or $5.5 million in today’s money. The US only had to provide the location and the pedestal. They had trouble raising the $300,000 for that until Joseph Pulitzer organized a grassroots campaign through his newspaper. He raised $102,000. Most of the 120,000 donations were between a few cents and a dollar.
There are 200,000 pounds of copper in the 151 feet and one-inch-tall statue itself. Including the pedestal, it is 305 feet and one-inch-tall from the ground to the torch.
I first saw it in the early 70s when a friend and I visited the Big Apple to see the sites. Kathie and I had just spent the summer as Girl Scout counselors and wanted a break before school. Her mom, Chris always called us Kathie with an IE or Kathy with a Y when talking to us. It was right around then that I decided that only people I had known growing up and my relations could call me Kathy. Since then, or at least for the last 50 years, I have only answered to Kathryn or occasionally Kate because I’m a fan of Katherine Hepburn.
I really wanted to do the Barbra Streisand thing when we visited the Statue of Liberty. You know the scene from “Funny Girl” when she stands in the bow of the tug and raises her droopy bouquet as the boat passes the Statue of Liberty on Fanny’s way to hook up with Nikki.
I did. It was fun.
On that trip we got the chance to visit Chinatown. I loved the pagoda shaped telephone booths. We also rode in a carriage through Central Park. But I remember the one thing I wanted to see most was the poem at the base of the statue.
“Give me your tired, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these the homeless, tempest tost to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” by Emma Lazarus.
Because that is the promise of America. It is why my great grandfather and great grandmother came here. It is what has given me the opportunity to be whoever I want to be, Kathy or Kathryn. It is a promise that Americans hold dear whether their family came over on the Mayflower or passed through Ellis Island.
No, France, you can’t have the Statue of Liberty back. It is ours and because in spite of what is currently happening in this country, real Americans will not ever break that promise.
