Old Photos of the Statue of Liberty Standing in Paris Were Extraordinarily Surreal

Old photos of the Statue of Liberty standing in Paris were extraordinarily surreal

In science fiction filmdom, the destruction of the Statue of Liberty is merely a sign that the carnage is chugging along at a steady tack. But reality provides some equally strange views of Lady Liberty, particularly when she was under construction in Paris during the mid-1880s. Here are some curious photographs of this iconic Statue in various states of disarray.

The Statue of Liberty was supposed to be a centennial gift from France to the United States, but funding difficulties waylaid the project for almost a decade.

The head and torch were completed long before the base and the rest of the body — these disembodied sculptures were put on display years prior, with the hand ending up at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1876. Only after a decade of fundraising did construction accelerate. As the National Park Service explains:

Financing for the pedestal was completed in August 1885, and pedestal construction was finished in April of 1886.

The Statue was completed in France in July, 1884 and arrived in New York Harbor in June of 1885 on board the French frigate "Isere" which transported the Statue of Liberty from France to the United States. In transit, the Statue was reduced to 350 individual pieces and packed in 214 crates.

The Statue was re-assembled on her new pedestal in four months time. On October 28th 1886, the dedication of the Statue of Liberty took place in front of thousands of spectators.

Here are some photographs of the Statue looming over Paris. They evoke the spoils of some time-traveling despot who steals monuments throughout history. Or perhaps that never-was post-apocalyptic thriller, Planet of the Men with Mustaches.

This looks like a good rabbit hole.

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "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-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Emma Lazarus, 1883

Lazarus was the fourth of seven children of Moses Lazarus and Esther Nathan, Sephardic Jews[3] whose families, originally from Portugal, had been settled in New York since the colonial period.<<<

She is an important forerunner of the Zionist movement. She argued for the creation of a Jewish homeland thirteen years before Theodor Herzl began to use the term Zionism.<<<

Emma Lazarus

Interesting.

Isaiah 54

1. Sing, O barren, you who did not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you who did not labor with child; for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, says the Lord:
2. Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of your habitations; spare not, lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes:
3. For you shall break forth on the right hand and on the left; and your seed shall possess nations, and make desolate cities to be inhabited:

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11. O you afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay your stones with fair colors, and lay your foundations with sapphires:
12. And I will make your windows of rubies, and your gates of beryl, and all your borders of precious stones:

Gen 30.

22. And God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her, and opened her womb:
23. And she conceived, and bore a son; and said, God has taken away my reproach:
24. And she called his name Joseph; and said, The Lord shall add to me another son:

Bartholdi's early models were all similar in concept: a female figure in neoclassical style representing liberty, wearing a stola and pella (gown and cloak, common in depictions of Roman goddesses) and holding a torch aloft. The face was modeled after that of Charlotte Beysser Bartholdi, the sculptor's mother.

Hmmm.

Statue of Liberty

I don’t like the statue of liberty. I liked it when immigrants weren’t the huddled masses. I liked it when you had to have some serious attitude and a good bit of money to get over here. That is when the strength and character of the American “race” were determined. Landless second sons, adventurers, and a bunch of religious rebels, not the tired and poor. Sure, a lot of good hard working people came over later, in steerage, but so did a lot of socialist ideas and culture. The only melting pot I approve of had finished simmering by the mid to late 1800’s.

I’d love to see France’s greatest practical joke fall into the sea, and that dang poem with it.

Please, come to America if you are able to pay your way, and want to succeed by out-working and out-thinking those who are already here.

If you want to come here for the free health care, free schools, and free everything, go get screwed.

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