Statue of Liberty

Researched by Colby D.
2002-03
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    • DEDICATION 
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Research Summary 
The Statue of Liberty is a symbol of freedom.  The statue is a huge model of an ancient Roman goddess that people from France gave to America; it was a gift from one country to another.  The statue is located in New York harbor.

The statue was dedicated October 28, 1886, and was open to the public the same day.  The statue was completed July 1884, in France.  The makers of the statue disassembled it and sent it across the ocean by boat to America where they reassembled it and put it where it is standing today.  It took more than 200 crates to ship the whole statue to America.  It took a year for the Americans to reassemble the statue again, in it’s rightful place. 
  
The connection between France and America is with the statue.  A French citizen by the name of Auguste Bartholdi was asked at a dinner party to help make the statue.  The statue was to be a gift to America from France as a gift representing the friendship between the two countries.  There were many other people that were involved in making the statue possible. Edward Dalabolye was a professor. Gustoff Eiffel was an engineer, Senator William Evarts (American politician) helped raise money for the pedestal, Richard Morris Hunt (American), Jose Puiliptzer (Democrat, first critical, then agreed to help raise last $1,000 for the pedestal.

About 150 people work at the statue.  There are all kinds of jobs that you can get there; here are a few: Park Rangers, Librarian, and Park guide.

The employees at the statue make different amounts of money; it just depends on the job you have.  For the lower paid people they get about $20,000 a year.  The Park Rangers  get somewhere between $35,000 and $50,000 a year.  The park guide gets around $25,000 a year, and the superintendent gets $100,000 a year.
  
A lady by the name of Emma Lazarus was born in 1849 and died in 1887.  She was a American poet.  She is best known for her sonnet, "The New Colossus", it was inscribed on a plaque inside the Statue of Liberty.  Emma Lazarus was born in New York City.  She wrote sentimental poetry about love and death.
"Give me your tired, your poor, 
your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, 
the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.  
Send these, the homeless tempest tossed, to me; 
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."  
The poem is very reassuring and it is one of my favorites.

The statue is located on Ellis Island, in the New York harbor where it greets immigrants from all over the world.

The statue is made out of iron and stainless steel.  Underneath the statue’s outside there is a skeleton type object that was built by one of the workers of the statue so the statue wouldn’t fall over.  It’s like an invisible support to help the statue stand, and not sway.  The workers had it built so there wouldn’t be any serious damage.  Another damaged area was the torch.  A man volunteered to fix the torch of the statue when it was damaged and took away the copper and put in glass (it was like a huge light bulb).  He wanted to increase the lighting power.
 
The number of people that visit the statue a year is between 5,000,000 and 6,000,000 visitors.  Teachers will take their classes on field trips there, and the students will get to act in plays and have fun in the activities that the workers provide.

When the statue was completed in America and reassembled some of the creators of the statue didn’t come to see it because they didn’t want to or they had sadly passed away.

 The statue is so enormous it weighs tons.  Here are some interesting, and very detailed statistics about the statue:

  •  Length of Hand, 16’5’’, 5.00m
  •  Index Finger, 8’0’’,  2.44m
  • Head Thickness from ear to ear,  10’0’’,  3.05m
  •  Thickness of Tablet,  2’0’’,  .61m
  •  Length of Nose,  4’6’’,  1.37m
  •  Thickness of Waist, 35’0’’,  10.67m
  •  Length of Tablet,  23’’7’’,  7.19m  
  • Height from base to torch,  151’1’’,  46.05m
  •  Ground to tip of torch,  305’1’’, 92.99m
  •  Heel to top of head, 111’1’’,  33.86m
  •  Head from chin to cranium, 17’3’’,  5.26m
  •  Distance across the eye,  2’6’’,  .76m
  •  Length of right arm, 42’0’’,  12.80m
  •  Thickness of right arm, 12’0’’, 3.66m
  •  Width of Mouth, 3’0’’,  .91m
  •  Width of tablet, 13’7’’,  4.41m   

Who I Interviewed and What I Learned 

On December 12, 2002 I interviewed Barry Moreno, who is a librarian at the Statue of Liberty.  He gave me all kinds of interesting facts about the Statue, like: the Statue represents an ancient Roman goddess, the people that were most important in the past of the Statue were, Edward Dalabolye, Auguste Bartholdi, Gustoff Eiffel, Senator William Evarts, Richard Morrs Hunt, and the volunteer workers.

I interviewed him by telephone, and I had to remember that there is a 3-hour difference in New York.  I called him around 9:00, so it was 12:00 their time, around lunch.  Barry Moreno told me a lot about himself, and what it took to be able to work at the Statue of Liberty.  He told me about the statue and when it was open to the public, which was October 28, 1886.  He also told me what the statue is made out of, which is iron and stainless steel. 
Bibliography

Bell, James B. "The Statue of Liberty."  The World Book Encyclopedia.  1999

Curlee, Lynn.  Liberty

Embassy of France.  WWW.washingtonambafrance-us.org

Haskins, Jim.  The Statue of Liberty (America’s Proud Lady.)  Minneapolis.  Lerner Publications Company.  1986.  0-41. 

Moreno, Barry. Telephone Interview.  12-10-02 

Roberts, Russell.   The Statue of Liberty.  1953.  8-96. 

"Wonder of a Man’s Creation" (video recording) / International Video Network; Reader’s Digest Association; series producer, Kim Thomas; producer/ director, Chris Valenti; written by Peter L. Stein. 
 

 

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