The Statue of Liberty Under Construction

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The Statue of Liberty Under Construction
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The New York Public Library has recently unveiled
some extraordinary pictures of the Statue of
Liberty under construction. Take a trip back in
time and see extraordinary behind the scenes
images of the creation of this superlative
structure.
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A giant is formed. The sheer scale of the statue
under construction can be seen here, in contrast
to the workmen posing woodenly for that fairly
new invention, the camera.. The more formal name
for the statue is Liberty Enlightening the World
and it is constructed with sheets of pure copper,
even though the picture makes it look something
like marble.. It is something of a miracle that
we now have the finished product standing proudly
on Liberty Island. Had it not been for the
contributions of ordinary French and Americans
then she would never have arisen in the first
instance.
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At the time France was in political turmoil and,
although at the time under their third republic,
many people looked back at the time of Napoleon
and the monarchy before that with fondness and
wanted its return. The desire for a backwards
step to authoritarianism was worrying. French
politicians - as wily then as now - saw Lady
Liberty as a way, albeit phenomenally huge, to
focus the public's imagination on republicanism
as the best way forward. The USA and its
centennial of independence from the yolk of
England was the perfect focus.
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The plaster surface of the left arm and its hand
take shape, the skeleton underneath revealed. As
there is a deal of work under the carapace, so
the French politicians had ulterior motives.
Using the USA - which many saw as the ideal of
government and populist aspirational politics -
the French used the statue as a Trojan Horse in
reverse, as it were. Its true purpose, in the
eyes of the political gift givers, was to make
republicanism the center of political ideology in
the minds of the people. How greatly it succeeded
can never fully be quantified but the French
cannot be faulted for thinking big.
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It must surely have been amazing for the workers
to turn up each morning to the sight of a
colossal head looking down upon them. The
inspiration for the face seems to be the Roman
god of the sun, Apollo or his Greek equivalent,
Helios. More down to earth sources of inspiration
center on the women in the life of the sculptor,
Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. It may well have been
Isabella Eugenie Boyer, a good looking and
well-known figure in Paris at the time. More
worrying, some believe the face of the statue
actually belongs to Bartholdi's mother. Bartholdi
never revealed the true model of the face, but if
this is the case Freud would have had a field
day.
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Bertholdi made a small scale model first, which
is still displayed in the Jardin du Luxembourg in
the city of the statue's original construction,
Paris. Before the statue was shipped to America,
though, it had to be seen to be tested. If it had
not been for money, it may never have landed in
the states - particularly in the form we all
know. On a visit to Egypt, Bartholdi's vision of
liberty expanded to its present proportions. Had
his original idea received financial support,
then whatever gift the French gave the Americans
for the 1876 centennial could not possibly have
been the statue.
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Little by little, the statue arises. Bertholdi
saw the Suez Canal under construction in the
eighteen sixties and was inspired to build a
giant figure at its entrance. He drew up plans
which bore a remarkable similarity to what now
stands on Liberty Island but his ideas were
rejected by the Egyptian ruling body of the time
because of the financial problems the country was
facing at the time. Had the statue been built in
Egypt as a lighthouse, the idea would never have
been taken up for America. The Statue of Liberty
as we know it was in fact used as a lighthouse,
from its unveiling in 1886 right until 1902 - the
very first in the world to use electricity.
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Almost there! There were huge structural issues
that had to be addressed in the design and
construction of a sculpture of such enormity.
Enter a certain Gustave Eiffel, who would later
go on to build that eponymous tower which still
dominates the skyline of Paris. It was his job
(which he delegated to Maurice Koechlin, his
favored structural engineer) to ensure that
Liberty's copper sheath could move while still
remaining vertical. Koechlin created a huge pylon
of wrought iron and the famous skeletal frame to
ensure that the statue would not fall down in
high winds.
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Money was always a problem. The plan had been to
get the statue to the US by the fourth of July,
1876. Only the right arm and torch were finished
by then. However, as the Americans had taken
responsibility for the construction of the
pedestal, these pieces of the statue were
displayed to the American pubic at the Centennial
Exposition (in Philadelphia) . Money raised by
allowing people to climb this part of the statue
(see here) started the funding efforts for the
base of the statue. The French did their bit too,
showing the head in their own exposition in 1878.
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1886 must have been one of those years that
people remembered for the rest of their lives. A
statue of gigantic proportions, symbolizing the
ideas and aspirations of America, was unveiled by
President Grover Cleveland at Liberty Island
(renamed from Bedloe's Island or Love Island). In
an ironic twist, President Cleveland had vetoed
the New York legislature from contributing fifty
thousand dollars to help with the building of the
statue's pedestal. From the model stage, above,
to its triumphant moment of revelation, the
process was fraught with difficulty - mostly of a
financial nature. However, thanks to the efforts
of both the American and French people we now
have a permanent reminder of what we should hold
dear - liberty still symbolically steps forth
from her shackles to protect, shelter and
enlighten.