Lady Liberty

This morning as I was looking at images of the storm on the east coast, I thought of the Statue of Liberty, my favorite American sculpture. Two weeks ago my friend Mary Ann and I were in NYC and went out to see her. In 1987 I climbed all the way up into her crown for the fee of $1.00. Because I am a metalsmith I am always blown away by how she was constructed. The sculpture, designed by French artist Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi, was hammered out of solid copper sheets by French craftsmen. The giant sheets are riveted together and hung from steel springs that are attached to the iron infrastructure designed by Eiffel, one of the best structural engineers who ever lived. In the two closeup images below you can see the individual giant copper plates on her arm and the bottom of her foot and even some of the copper rivets.

The photograph below was taken at the French workshop of Gaget, Gauthier et Cie, the craftsmen who actually made the colossal statue. Note the size of the torch compared to the men in the shop.

 By the early 1980's Liberty was showing a lot of wear and tear so she was restored for her 100th anniversary by a combination of French and American craftsmen and engineers. Below is a photo from July 4, 1986 after the restoration was complete. The flame in the torch was completely remade and covered with pure gold leaf.

 Liberty Island is a national park and they have a great souvenir shop. I bought the exact same thing I bought the last time I was there, a flashlight in the shape of Liberty's torch. It is the item on the right below. The object on the left is a horrible Chinese interpretation of her torch which I bought a few years ago from a costume supply shop. I bought it because I was teaching mold-making at the time and it was an excellent example of bad design, bad molding and a knock-off-on-steroids.  If you look closely you will see that the Chinese version says Made In China. It is a crude misunderstanding of a classic American icon. There is a political metaphor in there somewhere, but I'll let you figure it out.