The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World: from French birth to American Icon

No image or symbol in the United States has permeated every aspect of American life as has the Statue of Liberty, created by sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi.

Conceived in the 1870s in Paris and created over two decades, the Statue was erected in New York City harbor and inaugurated on October 28, 1886.

Its formal construction history is well known and documented, but its less-known parallel subsequent social and international history is part of the American psyche.

Her image has lent itself to all causes: right or left, peace or war, Democrat or Republican, native or immigrant. From the irreverent to the extraordinary, this illustrated talk will give new meaning to the old gal.

She championed women’s rights, and from her earliest days in the 1880s, she became known as a mother to all immigrants who viewed her from the deck of an arriving ship in New York Harbor.

Jeffrey Eger was a historical researcher and writer for the Statue of Liberty Museum in 1984-85. His Statue of Liberty collection of objects, paper documents, and ephemera is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the United States. It has been featured in many museum exhibitions and more than 200 international magazines and newspapers in 1986 celebration of the Statue’s Centennial.

This illustrated talk was conceived and photographed from Eger’s collection. It is an old fashioned slide show with new fashioned observations.

Celebrate the Fourth in style.