June 28, 2023 – THEME WEEK DAY 3

We’re in the middle of our theme week on 5 Other Things that Happened on the 4th of July. It was on July 4, 1884 that the Statue of Liberty was presented to the United States in Paris. The completed statue was officially presented to the U.S. ambassador to France, then disassembled and shipped to America. 350 pieces of the statue were packed into 214 crates for the voyage across the Atlantic.
The statue was a gift from the people of France. French historian and abolotionist Eduoard de Laboulaye came up with the idea as a way to commemorate the centennial of U.S. independence, the perseverance of American democracy, and the liberation of the nation’s slaves after the Civil War. The statue was designed by sculptor Frederic Bartholdi, with metal framework built by Gustave Eiffel. The 7 spikes on her crown symbolize the world’s 7 seas and continents. At the time of its arrival stateside, the statue was the tallest structure in the  U.S., standing 151 feet 1 inch.
A dedication ceremony was held on October 28, 1886, presided over by President Grover Cleveland. That morning, a huge parade was held in New York City, attracting crowds of nearly a million people. As the parade passed the New York Stock Exchange, traders through ticker tape through the windows of the buildings, starting the New York tradition of the ticker-tape parade.
The statue is covered in 300 sheets of thin copper. When it first arrived, it looked like a shiny new penny. It took around 20 years for the copper to patina into the green hue we see today. And because she’s made of metal and exposed to the elements, Lady Liberty is struck by lightening around 600 times a year! Learn more here.