20 Herald & Lantern 27 )une '84

Keeping Great Lady on Her Pedestal

By INK MENDELSOHN Smithsonian Neps Service 4 She could fairly be ' described as p classic beauty. Thick curls frame strong yet serene features ) weH -spaced eyes, long It o man n6se. generous mouth and clearly 'defined chin Tall, lull figured and stately in bearing, the Statue of Liberty's face and form are familiar to millions all over the world! Her curls — some of them close to eight feet long — surround a noble head that is 10 feet from ear to'ear and 17 feet 3 inches from cranium to chin. Each eye is 2' feet wide, her nose if 4' feet long and her mouth measures 3 feet across. Liberty is 151 feet tall without her pedestal. It is her pedestal, however, that anchors the ? lady firmly to old Fort Wood on Libetv Island in New York City's windy Upper Bay The graftite-faced pedestal is 89 feet high with a 65-foot-high base, making the entire statue 305 feet

tall. Until the turn of the century. Liberty alone dominated the New York, skyline. Today, she remains the most colossal statue jn the world FOR ALMOST 100 years, the classical goddess, designed by French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi and created in the image of his mother, has watched over New York's harbor. She bears a torch symbolizing liberty and wears a seven-spiked crown radiatjng to each of the seven continents and the seven seas. At the statue's feet are brpkeh shackles signifiving freedom from tvpmny. In her left hand, she dasps a 24-foot tablet marking America's birthdate. July 4 . 1 — in Home numerals^ of course. All in all. it was quite a birthday gift that the United States received in Paris on July 4. 1884. when Ferdinand de Lesseps. president of the Union Franco-Americaine.

presented the statue of "Liberty Enlightening the World" to Levi P Morton. U.S. Minister to Paris. On that festive occasion, de I^esseps noted that Frances gift represented the contributions of 180 cities. 40 general councils, a large number of societies and more than 100.000 subscribers. "WE COMMIT IT to your care. Mr. Minister, that it may remain forever the pledge of tbe bonds which should unite France and the great American nation." What de Lesseps didn't know then was that, by the time the statue was on her way to America, the French committee would be relieved to be rid of the 450.000-pound lady. Liberty Enlightening the world wasn't even a gleam in hencreator's eye until the evening in 1865 when Edouard de Laboulaye gathered a small group of French intellecutals around' his dinner table. Laboulaye. a distinguished jurist, academic and ardent admirer of the republican form of government. believed passionately in America. To his dinner guests, he sang the praises of that long-lived republic which stood in contrast to monarchical Europe and to a France in constant political upheaval. ACCORDING TO sculptor Bartholdi's account. Laboulaye speculated about a joint French- American project, a monument "to be built in America as a. memorial to their independence". It would hae been politically dangerous for French republicans to erect a statue to liberty in Paris in Napoleon Ill's Second Em pire. but America was a different matter Government at home could be more safely criticized through a statue across the sea.

Bartholdi set sail for America in spring of 1871 in search of what Laboulaye had called a "happy idea", a plan lor a monument that would "excite public enthusiasm ." That summer, he traveled everywhere, making new American friends for himself and the monument The sculptor visited the poet Longfellow and smoked a cigar with Presdient Grant Bartholdi sent Laboulaye a report of his first impressions of America, right down to her peas: "Everything here is big. even the petits-pois... " As he traveled, the monument took definite shape in his mind. Liberty Enlightening the World would be "a staute of : colossal proportions which ! would surpass all that have ever existed since the most ancient times." Bedloe's \ Island in New York harbor. gateway to the New World, ■became his choice as an ap- ' propriate site for the j American colossus. BUY MONUMENTS take § time to rise and colossal ■* monuments take lots of time. Meant for America's | 1876 centennial. Liberty would not come to these •:* shores for another decade. L; Committees were formed p on both sides of the Atlantic; the Union FrancoAmericaine in 1875 and the w American Committee in P 1877, The French would j?'.! raise funds to build the pi

>f stalie and transport it to ie thef United States The i. Americans would design, n build and pay for the Ie. peflestal Congress ■s ael&iow ledged the gift in i- 18a- and authorized a 16 se^ch for a site, e [|u ring the long const rue d tipfi period, the statue was 6 ncm idle. Liberty did her paW irl sell -promotion and ir fuld-raising Her right it fofearm and torch made a e hi> in Philadelphia at h America's Centennial Exd position. Her head api- pelred at the Paris Univer s sJ| Exhibition of 1878. 1. Mnd in the summer ol s lae. when she was come pfijsted to the waist. Bard t^Jdi gave a little .uncheon e f<|| 20 journalists in her rwht knee. Tireless proe i^ter though he was. a sfjjnetimes even Bartholdi 1 gijew impatient. He wrote a tdjiis mother: "One cannot e imagine all I have had to do f aitjd especially to wait, it s \^s like the cooking of a dpor crawfish." J ;LN 1879. the project's original architect. Viollet2 ISfDuc. died, and a new engineer was chosen. 'sJustave Eiffel was the logical choice for Bar- ? t&pldi." observes Robert I |p g eJ . curator of l mechanicaf and civil pineering at the Smithso-. i pan's Museum of I Mnerican History ."Even (iffore his famous tower, he $hd an excellent reputation leased on his bridges - R'ectacular in their size, an and scope." jjLike any classic beauty. $e Statue of Liberty has 1 jgpod "bones " Her in- ' gbvative iron skeleton. ' designed by Eiffel, is the framework which supports 1 | fragil copper skin ap1 proximately the thickness 1 w two quarter dollars Bar tjhcldi chose copper because it is light, strong yet easily worked, attractive and resistant to salt iaden air Because his giant work would have to travel across the ocean, he .Constructed it in 300 pieces | No part of Liberty 's shell ijapsts directly on the parts fSelow- ; each is hung independently on the iron Skeleton, foreshadowing ;0fie development of the j&vscraper in the late 19th jBentury Thanks to the j genius ol Eiffel's design. ||he statue has been able to Adjust to temperature and ^tmi/spheric changes and £ijo resist the strong winds jfjjhat buffeted her f t. I B E It T Y II \ S fithstood the winds of ; adversity and change as fell After her forma! presentation to the American envoy, she stood > for months in lonely majesty. towering over Paris i rooftops, in back of Bar Uholdi's workshop. ; She then spent long months on French docks packed in 214 custom-made * It-rates marked for | reassembly in New York's harbor. Liberty lacked the j promised American j Ijpedestal. still on the drawing board of its designer. rRichard Morris Hunt, dean |&f American architecture. pThere wasn't enough pjionev to start the job. Boston. Philadelphia. p»an Francisco. Chicago. *£leveland. St Louis. Minraneapolis and Baltimore Newspapers editorialized :|hat their cities Would raise |fhe money in no time gihould the statue be offered to them. The New York

Times expressed moral outrage: "This statue is dear to us. though we have never looked upon it. and no third-rate town is going to step in and take it from us " IT TOOK another New York paper to act Joseph Pulitzer, publisher of the New York World, began a relentless "people's campaign" that didn't stop until the necessary amount remaining for the pedestal's construction. SUM). 000. had been raised Daily he recorded every contribution, no matter how small, and printed let ters like this one: "I am only a sewing girl but I am in full sympathy with your effort ." She sent 50 cents. On the great day of Libety's dedication. Oct 28. 1886 a day so wet and that the fireworks had to be postponed — it is unlikely that President Cleveland. Bartholdi or any of the dignitaries and guests gave any thought to the hundreds of im migrants unloading their scanty belongings at Manhattan's Battery They certainly in no way connected the immigrants with the statue. But two poets foresaw what Liberty would come to mean to the millions of immigrants who came to America in great waves form the year of her aedication until the mid-l920s. EMMA LAZARUS, a

young poet with a gro-^ng literary reputation, had ^ w ritten an ode to Liberty to help raise money for her pedestal. In Emma's poem, the Statue of Liberty became the "Mother of Ex iles". Famed poet James Russell Lowell wrote to Emma. "Your sonnet gives its subject a raison d' el re" - literally, a reason to be - "which it wanted before." In an irony of history, the statue of Liberty became a national monument in the same year, 1924. that the National Origins Act set a ceiling on immigration and established a national origins quota system Once again. Liberty's meaning was transformed. The tide of immigartion ebbed, and. in two world wars. American men sailed to battle. Most of them came home — the the Statue of Liberty's welcome. And so it came to pass that Lady Liberty — a handsome Parian im migrant — became the symbol of Ameprfa herself. Even in this day of women's liberation, she is one lady everyone wants to keep on her pedestal.

B YNK GIFT — Metallic. Kuppel. manager of North Cape May branch of Marine National Bank, donates $20 to Statue of Liberty Drive of Lower Township Elementary Schools. Receiving check are Christine Laskey. student counci^ president. am* ( hris s,'tfura. student council treasurer. *

WkJm i^Pi ^ /ffl RESTORATION — A major preservation effort has begun to restore the Statue of Liberty presented to America by France on July 1. IXX4. 1

Penny Drive Nets $1007 for Liberty

The* Student Couneil of the Lower Towqship Elementary Schools sponsored a penny drive to benefit the Statue of Liberty. which raised $1007.82. The drive began April 11 and ended June 6 These fourth, fifth, and sixth graders, with the assistance of the PTA. have offered various incentives to aid their campaign. These include certificates of appreciation for every class with total student participation, ice cream for each class that collects $25. and a trophy for the top fund-raising class. Some of the pennies nave been mounted on an eightfoot plywood silhouette of the statue located in Consolidated School outside the office of principal Jerry G. Livingston. This figure sbpws the progress of the students' contributions with each penny representing 15 cents. A second silhouette, totally covered with pennies, is on display 1 at Marine National Bank, , Bayshore Road. North | Cape May. The silhouettes i are the work of fifth grade I Student Council member I : ( *

Dale Murphy with the guidance of Art teacher John Havnie THROUGH THE office of Superintendent Edward J. Campbell and the Lower Township Chamber of Commerce, the council has taken its project to community businesses. Local merchants were offered the opportunity to purchase the pennies with a mat ch*ng donation The results have been gratifying, with the following businesses making generous donatons: Cam-Den Glass of Villas. Inc.. $50; Jim Wallace. $20; Steve Patrick. $10; Bob Gerhart, Diamond Beach. $50; Albert Cremin. North Cape May Sunoco. $20; Dr Benita R. Battaglia, $10; Rodion M. Folis, Fobs Pharmacy. $20; Marine National Bank, North Cape May Branch. $20; Charles Pesagno. National Associates. $100; Dalrymple Gift Shoppe, Sea Isle City. $15; Stu Millard. Villas Market. $25; Wandg Kempinski. The Head Shop. $20; Stan and Virginia Leszczvnski's Pier, $20.

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