Anastasia Manioudaki (thanks to Ann M. who notes I think the Lady must now be weeping. Please note her imagined damage (head knocked off) in the WW1 poster on display in our Art of the Month + her history below.
By 1883, the statue was almost finished when Laboulaye died. He was succeeded in the French committee by Ferdinand de Lesseps, famous as the developer of the Suez Canal. Finally, the following year, the statue was finished and presented to the American ambassador in Paris in a formal ceremony on July 4th, 1884. However, it remained in France for another year, pending the construction of the pedestal, because things weren’t looking as good in the United States.
The funding committees on the other side of the Atlantic were facing great difficulties and had remained inactive for several years due to intense public criticism. The Americans didn’t like the statue’s design or the fact that they would have to pay for the pedestal.
In the U.S., fundraising efforts for the pedestal included theatrical events and art exhibitions; poet Emma Lazarus wrote and placed into auction the now-famous sonnet The New Colossus. The poem was inscribed on a plaque and placed on the pedestal in 1903. Fundraising took a turn for the Americans in 1885 when Joseph Pulitzer placed an ad in his paper, the New York World, inviting readers to donate to the cause. In exchange, Pulitzer printed each donor’s name in the newspaper. (continued on Page 2)