Artwork Details
- Title
- Liberty
- Artist
- Date
- ca. 1884
- Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 46 x 12 x 11 in. (116.8 x 30.5 x 28.0 cm)
- Credit Line
- Transfer from the U.S. Capitol
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- painted terra cotta and tin
- Classifications
- Subjects
- Allegory — civic — liberty
- Study — sculpture model
- Figure female
- Object Number
- XX76
Artwork Description
Rising from a small island in New York Harbor, the Statue of Liberty was a gift from France in 1886 in honor of the friendship forged between two allies during the American Revolution. Liberty stands on a broken chain to symbolize victory over tyranny, a narrative that omits the millions of enslaved Africans forcibly brought to this land in the decades before and after the Revolution. Bartholdi delivered this small-scale model to the federal Capitol, where it was on view from 1884 until 1887. The monumental version was often characterized as a beacon of hope for millions of immigrants who sailed past it on the way to Ellis Island, where the U.S. government documented their arrival. Emma Lazarus's poem inscribed on the base proclaims America's welcome to all seeking a better life:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free . . .
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!