History of Statue of Liberty | Statue Of Liberty | Oh, Ranger!

On October 15, 1924, President Calvin Coolidge declared the Statue of Liberty a national monument. From the article:

At the time of the Statue of Liberty's dedication, she was the tallest structure in New York, reaching a total height of 305 feet. It wasn't until 1899 that she was overtaken by Saint Paul's Building, which rose to 310 feet. Lady Liberty remains the visual and spiritual center of New York Harbor.

In 1903, one of the most memorable changes to the statue occurred without fanfare or publicity. A bronze tablet was fastened to an interior wall of the pedestal. Cast as a part of the plaque was a poem written in 1883 that has become the credo for thousands of immigrants coming to America.

The poem, "The New Colossus," was written by Emma Lazarus to help raise funds for the construction of the statue's pedestal. Today, many people think of the statue and poem as inseparable.

In 1916, the World once again raised its voice to raise funds on behalf of the statue. This time, the goal was to floodlight the statue at night. The paper's readers contributed $30,000 and the torch was also redesigned in glass.

From the time of the Revolutionary War, the female figure Columbia was generally regarded as the symbol for America, but the statue's increased visibility and popularity during World War I easily shifted America's symbolic loyalties. Liberty's features appeared everywhere; she became a kind of female equivalent to Uncle Sam. To help finance U.S. participation in the war, the Treasury Department authorized using the statue as a rallying symbol on posters designed to raise funds. The government sold about $15 billion worth of bonds, equal to about half the cost of World War I.

President Calvin Coolidge declared the Statue of Liberty to be a national monument on October 15, 1924. In 1933, the National Park Service took over its administration and maintenance.

The French-American Committee for the Restoration of the Statue of Liberty was established in 1981. Following an initial diagnostic report for the NPS, it was determined that substantial work needed to be done. The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation was then formed to raise funds and oversee any needed restoration. As in the past, private contributions were the backbone of the foundation's success: More than $295 million was collected; $86 million went directly to the statue's restoration.

On July 4, 1986, America threw a special birthday party for the Statue of Liberty. With a golden sunset glowing in the background, President Ronald Reagan declared, "We are the keepers of the flame of liberty; we hold it high for the world to see." Later, the president pressed a button that sent a laser beam across the water toward the statue. Slowly, dramatically, majestically, a light show unveiled Liberty and her new torch, while spectacular fireworks exploded across the sky. With an entire nation watching - along with 1.5 billion television viewers around the world - and thousands of people filled with gratitude, one wonders how Bartholdi and Laboulaye might have felt as Liberty enlightened the world that historic night.