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Sources: Statue of Liberty National Park Service Historical Handbook Series No. 11, 1952 Restoring the Statue of Liberty Hayden, Despont. McGraw-Hill. 1986. Statue of Liberty Encyclopedia Moreno. Simon & Schuster. 2000. The Statue of Liberty Marvin Trachtenberg. Viking. 1976. Idealists, Scoundrels, and the Lady F.Ross Holland. University of Illinois Press. 1993. |
| 1876 | Torch and right hand completed in Paris. It was dismantled, crated and sent to the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibit, erected under Bartholdi's supervision.. | |
| 1885-6 | Statue erected on Bedloe's Island. | |
| 1886 | Bartholdi recommends (8) lamps mounted on the torch platform. One week before the opening, Army Corps of Engineers decides to cut 2 rows of portholes in the flame and add interior lamps. | |
| 1886 | October 28. Lighting at the dedication postponed due to rain. | |
| 1886 | November 1, 7:35 PM. Lighting energized using steam powered electric generator, but the hoped for 50 mile visibility was obviously a failure. Observers on Manhattan Island could hardly see the light. Bartholdi describes it as the "light of a glowworm". Lighting turned off on November 7 for further work. Relit November 22. | |
| 1887 | Lighting replaced with (9) arc lamps in the torch, (5) arc lamps at the base. Results still a disappointment | |
| 1887 | February 4. Congress appropriates $19,500 for Liberty lighting plant. | |
| 1892 | 18 inch belt of glass replaces portholes, octagonal pyramid skylight added on top. Bartholdi disappointed as the flame was now mutilated. | |
| 1897 | Oil fired generator installed to provide power. | |
| 1916 | Torch retrofit with (600) windows of various tinted yellow glass, executed by Gutzon Bortlum, sculptor of Mount Rushmore. From the Presidential yacht Mayflower President Woodrow Wilson activated a new lighting system - (246) 250 watt incadescent lamps located at the start points of the old Fort Wood, and (15) 500 candle power gas-filled electric lamps in the torch. | |
| 1931 | Lighting replaced with (96) 1000 watt incandescent lamps at the base. (13) 1000 watt and (1) 250 watt incandescent lamps installed in the torch. | |
| 1945 | (16) 400 watt mercury vapor lights added | |
| 1949 | Torch lighting revised to (10) 1000 watt and (3) 200 watt incandescent lamps and (6) 400 watt mercury vapor lamps |
 Original |
 Peeking above Fort Wood |  Railing Corn Cob |
1876 Philadephpia Centennial Exhibition |
| 1984 | "The flame was also a pressing issue, because the firm selected to construct a new flame and torch was gearing up to start the work. Since the old flame had been so badly assaulted over the years that it had lost some of the details of its original configuration, it was necessary to do meticulous research and design work to develop an accurate model of the original shape of the flame. Cliver and Roberts (Staff of the National Park Service) labored diligently, first minuitely examining old photographs of the flame and then developing a model of it in plaster. Though Swanke Hayden Connell (Project Architects) and its associate Architect, Thierry Despont, returned to the project after signing a new contract in late November, the basic design work had been done. Despont was most helpful to Cliver in his relations with the craftsmen of Les Metalliers Champenois, who, under the watchful eye of Cliver, carried the development of the flame through the quarter-size, half-size and full-size models. This example is but one of many of the influences that both Cliver and Robbins had in the design work on the Statue of Liberty. Virtually all of the public credit for the design of the work on the statue has gone to Swanke Hayden Connell and Despont, but the two who should get a healthy portion of the credit are Blaine Cliver and John Robbins." Holland, 1993 | |
| 1985 |
The year ended on a happier note. I returned to New York on December 29 and that evening Steve Briganti, the Mays, and I (F. Ross Holland) flew out to California for the Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl game. The flame of the torch of the Statue of Liberty was to be on the lead float of the parade. This was better treatment for the torch than had occurred in the 1870s, when the hand and torch had been brought over to be a fund raising device. It had been displayed at the 1876 centennial exposition in Philadelphia and later in New York. It returned to France in 1884 to be placed on the statue. For fifty cents people could climb up into the hand and torch and
out onto the gallery that circles the flame. The lead float was sponsored by Hilton Hotels, and it was Barron Hilton who had invited us out for the festivities. The flame had left Liberty Island for the first time since it had arrived there over ninety-eight years earlier. There was opposition in the National Park Service, mostly by the professional staff, to taking the torch off the island. They thought that touring the flame was not in keeping with its dignity and that the flame was fragile and might not survive a move across country or that it might be injured by some crackpot intent on making a political statement. To satisfy the concern about its safety, the foundation went to a great deal of trouble to design and make a container that held the flame securely. A route to LaGuardia Airport was carefully mapped out to avoid unsafe roads and low bridges or overhangs. On the day of the move the flame was loaded onto a flatbed trailer that was pulled to the pier, where a crane lifted it onto a barge. Electricians had hooked a battery to the electrical system of the flame so that during its move to LaGuardia the lighted flame could be seen through the clear plastic sides of the huge box. Workers off-loaded the trailer in Brooklyn, and a trailer then slowly pulled it to LaGuardia Airport, escorted by the police. At LaGuardia handlers carefully loaded the large box onto a Flying Tigers cargo plane that flew it to Los Angeles, where a bevy of news media people had gathered to greet the famous torch. John Robbins and Larry Bellante, at his own expense, had flown out with the torch. At Los Angeles, airport reporters besieged them with questions about the torch and the work on the statue. From the airport the flame traveled to the staging area, where artists were creating the floats for the Tournament of Roses Parade. Carefully guarded by National Park Service rangers, who had been temporarily reassigned from California parks, the flame was the star attraction. The rangers were impressed with the public's reaction to the flame. They reported that people approached it with a degree of reverence, almost as if it were a religious icon. I later witnessed this reaction on the day of the parade, as the float holding the flame waited to move out with the parade. Holland, 1993 | |
| 1984 | Torch replaced during renovation same as original solid copper. Gold leaf coating added. Statue and torch Metal Halide lighting scheme designed by Howard Brandston and the General Electric research lab. (40) 250 watt Metal Halide lamps on the statue's body, (16) 250 watt tungsten halogen incandescent lamps under the torch railing, (42) 6 volt spotlights light the torch from below, (4) 1000 watt MH floodlights mounted in the Statue's head. |
 Torch Balcony |
 Torch Railing |
Original Torch |  in Visitor's Center |
 Torch Railing |  Original Torch |
 Visitor's Cener |  Torch Base |
1876 Philadeplphia Centennial Exhibition | 1876 Philadeplphia Centennial Exhibition |
