See how our famous Statue of Liberty was originally built, from the 6-story head to the gigantic torch
Here are some peeks behind the scenes into how it was done, as well as close-up color photos from later repairs and renovations.
1. Workshop in Paris, showing construction materials, the head of the Statue of Liberty
2. Construction of the skeleton and plaster surface of the left arm and hand of the Statue of Liberty
3. Statue of Liberty construction in Paris
Workmen constructing the Statue of Liberty in Bartholdi’s Parisian warehouse workshop; first model; left hand; and quarter-size head (Winter 1882)
4. Head of Statue of Liberty on display in a park in Paris (1883)
From an album of the construction works of the colossal statue of Liberty, intended for the port of New York / Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi.
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5. Colossal hand and torch “Liberty”
The torch and part of the arm of the Statue of Liberty, on display at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. Information booth at the base of the arm, and two people are seen at railing below flame of the torch.
6. Liberty Enlightening the World: The Statue of Liberty construction project
Lady Liberty’s face is seen here on Liberty Island, waiting to be installed:
7. Statue of Liberty construction time: Going up!
Below is the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty, as it looked when the monument was first under construction:
8. Newspaper sketches from the time of the initial construction
9. Newspaper illustration of the construction scaffolding
Restoration images from the ’80s
10. Statue of Liberty’s torch fire in new copper
11. Liberty with scaffolding during repairs in the eighties
12. Thumb holding Liberty’s torch
13. Fingers holding the torch
14. Liberty’s arm, seen from near torch level
15. Side view of the statue’s head and sunburst headpiece
16. Looking down, as seen from torch arm
ALSO SEE: Give me your tired, your poor: The history of the Statue of Liberty poem
17. “The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World”
18. Head & hair from the side/back
19. Lights inside of the head
The lines on the walls are from the shape of her hair
20. Liberty’s face mask
21. Close up of the face: Nose and lips
22. The inside of the face: Nose and lips
23. Close-up of her date tablet
July IV MDCCLXXVI = July 4, 1776
24. A staircase inside the statue
MORE: New Amsterdam to now: Images of New York in the Colonial days
25. Lady Liberty’s feet and toes
26. Inside the Statue of Liberty
27. Liberty with scaffolding in the 1980s
28. Liberty Island, New York in the ’80s
NOW SEE THIS: The history of the Statue of Liberty, aka Liberty Enlightening the World (1884)
One Response
Bares an uncanny resemblance to Elvis.