Not like
the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With
silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
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!" ‘The
New Colossus’, by the 19th-century American poet and
Zionist, Emma
Lazarus. The poem, describing the Statue
of Liberty, appears on a plaque in the interior of the statue's
pedestal.
Originally,
Batholdi tried to sell the idea of such a statue to Egypt, a giant
lighthouse standing at the entrance to Suez Canal. Bartholdi
envisioned a statue of a woman veiled after the Muslim fashion.
Bartholdi presented his plans to the Egyptian Khediev,
Isma'il Pasha, in 1867 and, with revisions, again in 1869, but,
this being a time of economic depression for Egypt, the project was
never commissioned, so he decided to sell the idea to America.
The
idea of the Statue of Liberty was not received well by either the USA
federal nor New York state governments. However, due to a campaign
stated by publisher Joseph
Pulitzer, funds were raised for the American half of the bill in
only five months.
In Roman
mythology, Liberty is Libertas,
the goddess of freedom. Originally a deity of personal freedom, she
evolved to become the goddess of the commonwealth. Her temples were
found on the Aventine
Hill and the Forum.
She was depicted on many Roman coins as a female figure wearing a pileus
(a felt cap, worn by slaves when they were set free), a wreath of
laurels and a spear
.
Libertas
was presented in 1884 as a gift from the French Grand Orient Temple
Masons to the Masons of America in celebration of the centenary of
the first Masonic Republic, as much as a gift from France to
America. The cornerstone of the statue has an inscription that
records that it was laid in a Masonic ceremony. It is believed that
Bartholdi conceived the original statue as an effigy of the Egyptian
goddess Isis,
and only later converted it to a ‘Statue of Liberty’ for New
York Harbor when it was rejected for the Suez Canal. The
statue of Isis was to be of “a robed woman holding aloft a
torch” (Weisberger, Bernard, Statue of Liberty: 1st Hundred
Years, p.30, quoted in Lloyd, James, Beyond Babylon,
p.103).
It
is ironic that none of the speeches at the dedication of the
monument even mentioned immigrants; President Grover
Cleveland spoke about Franco-American friendship and American
ideals.
The poem inscribed on a
brass plaque inside the statue was composed by American
Zionist,
Emma Lazarus.
A
huge restoration project, costing $66 million, was finished in 1986,
the 100th anniversary of the dedication of ‘Liberty
Enlightening the World’. A four-day festival centring on July
4, 1986, marked the anniversary. A grand ceremony was also held
on October
28, 1986 – 100 years after the original dedication of the
colossus.
Lux
Mundi literally means 'the Light of the World'. This is also
another name for France’s Liberty, whose day this also is.
Liberty’s torch shines hope in the world. Her statue graces New
York City’s harbour, her full name being Liberty Enlightening
the World.
In Roman
mythology, Liberty is Libertas, the goddess of freedom.
Originally a deity of personal freedom, she evolved to become the
goddess of the commonwealth. Her temples were found on the Aventine
Hill and the Forum.
She was depicted on many Roman coins as a female figure wearing a pileus
(a felt cap, worn by slaves when they were set free), a wreath of
laurels and a spear ...
“The
Goddess of Liberty.
On December 10th, 1793, Mlle. Malliard, an actress, was selected to
personify the “Goddess of Liberty.” Being brought to Notre Dame,
Paris, she was seated on the altar, and lighted a large candle to
signify that Liberty was the “light of the world.” (See Louis
Blanc: History, ii. 365–367.)
“The statue
of Liberty, placed over the entrance of the Palais Royal, was
modelled from Mme. Tallien.
“The
Goddess of Reason.
(Aug. 10, 1793.) The Goddess of Reason was enthroned by the French
Convention at the suggestion of Chaumette; and the cathedral of
Notre Dame de Paris was desecrated for the purpose. The wife of
Momoro the printer was the best of these goddesses. The procession
was attended by the municipal officers and national guards, while
troops of ballet girls carried torches of truth. Incredible as it
may seem, Gobet (the Archbishop of Paris), and nearly all the clergy
stripped themselves of their canonicals, and, wearing red nightcaps,
joined in this blasphemous mockery. So did Julien of Toulouse, a
Calvinistic minister.
“‘Mrs.
Momoro, it is admitted, made one of the best goddesses of Reason,
though her teeth were a little defective.’—Carlyle: French
Revolution, vol. iii. book v. 4.
"
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Statue
Statistics
Height from to of base
to torch
151'1"
46.05m
Ground to tip of torch
305'1"
92.99m
Heel to top of head
111'1"
33.86m
Length of hand
16'5"
5.00m
Index finger
8'0"
2.44m
Head from chin to
cranium
17'3"
5.26m
Head thickness from
ear to ear
10'0"
3.05m
Distance across the
eye
2'6"
.76m
Length of nose
4'6"
1.37m
Length of right arm
42'0"
12.80m
Thickness of right arm
12'0"
3.66m
Thickness of waist
35'0"
10.67m
Width of mouth
3'0"
.91m
Length of tablet
23'7"
7.19m
Width of tablet
13'7"
4.14m
Thickness of tablet
2'0"
.61m
Ground to top of
pedestal
154'0"
46.94m
Visitors climb 354 steps to reach the crown or
192 steps in order to reach the top of the pedestal. There are 25 windows
in the crown which symbolize gemstones found on the earth and the heaven's
rays shining over the world. The seven rays of the statue's crown
represent the seven seas and continents of the world. The tablet that
Liberty holds in her left hand reads (in Roman numerals) "July 4th,
1776". The total weight of copper in the statue is 62,000 pounds (31
tons) and the total weight of steel in the Statue is 250,000 pounds (125
tons). Total weight of the Statue's concrete foundation is 54 million
pounds (27,000 tons). The copper sheeting of the Statue is 3/32 of an inch
thick or 2.37mm.
Wind sway: winds of 50 miles per hour cause the statue
to sway 3 inches (7.62cm) and the torch sways 5 inches (12.70cm).
Libertas
was presented in 1884 as a gift from the French Grand Orient Temple
Masons to the Masons of America in celebration of the centenary of
the first Masonic Republic, as much as a gift from France to
America. The cornerstone of the statue has an inscription that
records that it was laid in a Masonic ceremony. It is believed that
Bartholdi conceived the original statue as an effigy of the Egyptian
goddess 
