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Bartholdi's Liberty

by Jack Soroka, MPS
Have you ever been inside the Statue of 
Liberty? On September 1 , 1988, my wife 
and I visited Liberty Island (originally 
Bedloe's Island), New York. We got off 
the Circle Line ferryboat and walked up 
some steps to the pedestal. Inside the 
pedestal we climbed a double helical stair 
until we reached the base of the fig-
ure. The steel stairs wind round and 
round like a snail's shell. When Ruth 
and I finally got up inside the head we 
looked out the windows in Ms. Liberty's 
diadem. The crown has a 25 window 
observation platform that can accommo-
date 30 viewers. Across the harbor we 
viewed skyscrapers. The Big Apple had 
over two hundred of them that stick up 
into the air like bristles on a monstrous 
toothbrush. What a spectacular sight to 
behold!
Within the hollow statue are two paral-
lel stairways that spiral up from the base 
to the crown. A ladder inside the arm 
leads to the torch but this is too narrow 
and steep for public use. Each stairway 
has 168 steps, with rest seats at every 
third turn of the spiral. Climbing the 168 
steps creates a strong sensation of dis-
orientation. Ruth had the impression of 
being entangled in some gigantic struc-
tural machinery. She said that the iron 
framework resembled an oil derrick.
"Liberty Enlightening the World" is 
the largest work of its kind that has ever 
been completed. The famous Colossus 
of Rhodes was but a miniature in com-
parison. A 1974 poll conducted by the 
U.S. Travel Service found that the God-
dess of Liberty was named one of the 
seven man-made wonders of the United 
States.
The statue represents a regal woman 
draped in classical robes and wearing a 
crown with seven spokes. At her feet lie 
the broken shackles of slavery. In her 
uplifting right hand she carries a torch 
and in her left hand she holds a lawbook 
inscribed "July 4, 1776"--the date of 
the Dedaration of Independence. The 
figure weighs 225 tons and is made of 
more than 300 thin sheets of copper. On
the compass she faces SSE. To the ship-
board observer Liberty presents an illu-
sion of striding into the path of New York 
(and America). The green color of the 
statue is the result of patina or verdi-
gris--the green rust of copper. The 
wrought-iron armature was designed by 
Gustave Eiffel, contriver of the Eiffel 
Tower in Paris. The pedestal was design-
ed by Richard M. Hunt, the then-ac-
knowledged dean of American architec-
ture. The statue is one of the most cele-
brated of Repousse work, which is a 
process of hammering metal over a mold 
in order to shape the metal. Her fragile 
skin needed support not only against 
gravity but against the high winds in the 
Upper Bay of New York Harbor. The 
total structure is so firm that it is said that 
to overturn the statue one would have to 
upturn the island itself.
Ms. Liberty commemorates the friend-
ship of the peoples of the United States 
and France. The figure was built in Paris 
and shipped to the United States, in 214 
cases aboard the French ship Isere in 
May, 1885. Money for the statue was 
raised by subscription from the France 
populace. French Freemasons, espe-
cially the Lodge of the Seven Sisters in 
Paris, provided financial succor and pa-
tronage for the project. The pedestal was 
paid for by American donations. It is a 
fable that school children paid for the 
base. Grand Master Henry Martin and 
his New York Lodges were instrumental 
in procuring contributions for the build-
ing of the 27 meter stone and concrete 
pedestal.
Frederic Auguste Bartholdi; French 
Freemason, sculptor, military officer, 
painter, idealist, patriot, and academi-
cian, was the architect of the Statue of 
Liberty. He was a native of Colmar in 
Alsace where he was born on April 2, 
1834. He was brought up by his mother 
in Paris. His father was a well-to-do civil 
servant who died young. Frederic at first 
studied architecture and painting, but 
later took up sculpture. His main inter-
est was large-scale pieces glorifying hero-
ic ideas, personalities, and events. He 
had an obsession for the colossal. He 
conceded that the face of the statue was 
his mother's whereas Lady Liberty's 
body was modeled after that of Jeanne-
Emile Baheux de Puysieux, his wife, who 
spent countless hours posing for the fig-
ure. His Masonic sculptures are the 
statues of the Marquis de Lafayette and 
George Washington. Monument-maker 
Bartholdi was initiated into Alsace-Lor-
raine Lodge in Paris on October 4, 1875. 
In Paris on October 4, 1904 he laid down 
his working tools.
Ms. Liberty sets my mind thinking of 
the shortness of our lives and the awe-
some length of eternity--and that is Art.
