Frédéric Auguste BartholdiFrench, 1834–1904Liberty
May one see it?
Unknown: the museum keeps its counsel
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Washington, D.C., United States
The owner is known. Whether it is on view today, the museum does not say, and we were not trained to guess.
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum's own collection data
About the sculpture
Rising from a small island in New York Harbor, the Statue of Liberty was a gift from France in 1886 in honor of the friendship forged between two allies during the American Revolution. Liberty stands on a broken chain to symbolize victory over tyranny, a narrative that omits the millions of enslaved Africans forcibly brought to this land in the decades before and after the Revolution. Bartholdi delivered this small-scale model to the federal Capitol, where it was on view from 1884 until 1887. The monumental version was often characterized as a beacon of hope for millions of immigrants who sailed past it on the way to Ellis Island, where the U.S. government documented their arrival. Emma Lazarus's poem inscribed on the base proclaims America's welcome to all seeking a better life:
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Particulars
- Accession number
- XX76
What it shows
In the catalog
Sources
- Smithsonian American Art Museum: the museum's own open data · fetched 7 days ago
- Image: Smithsonian American Art Museum — CC0
