7 February 2000Associated Press
Statue of Liberty's Origins Probed
8 February 2000 ABCNEWS.COM Another Look at Lady Liberty
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7 February 2000 Associated Press Statue of Liberty's Origins Probed |
8 February 2000 ABCNEWS.COM Another Look at Lady Liberty |
| A 21-inch model of Lady Liberty, completed by Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi in 1870, is displayed at the Museum of the City of New York Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2000. The model has a broken chain around its hand, the actual statue in the harbor has a more understated broken shackle on its foot. National Park Service researchers here are investigating whether the actual statue dedicated 114 years ago was originally intended to mark the end of slavery in America. (AP Photo/Tina Fineberg) |
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Monday 7Feb2000 2:37PM ET By TOM KIRCHOFER Associated Press Writer BOSTON (AP) - The Statue of Liberty has long stood as a beacon of hope to immigrants. But National Park Service researchers are looking into the possibility that Lady Liberty may have been intended, at least in part, as a monument to freed black slaves. And if that's true, it could lead to a change in how the park service portrays the 114-year-old monument's history. An unsourced text began appearing on the Internet several years ago and quickly spread the theory that the widely accepted history of the Statue of Liberty is not true, says Rebecca M. Joseph, a Boston-based park service anthropologist. The Internet report said that the statue "was intended as a monument to the abolition of slavery in the United States and that the original model was a black woman," according to Joseph. The park service's official history of the Statue of Liberty holds it was proposed by French historian Edouard Laboulaye in 1865 to commemorate the friendship between France and the United States born during the Revolutionary War. But Laboulaye was also a leader of the French abolitionist movement with a commitment to fighting slavery, notes Diane H. Dayson, the statue's superintendent. "Our history states that he was an abolitionist, but we still don't know whether or not it was relative to the Statue of Liberty," she says. "The important thing for us is just to validate the history one way or another. Joseph is now combing archives and libraries here and in France to find out whether Laboulaye also wanted the statue to honor the recently freed slaves. Dayson says he may have conceived the statue with both the slaves and Franco-American friendship in mind. Richard Newman, a research officer at Harvard University's W.E.B. DuBois Institute for Afro-American Research, says it is widely believed in academic circles that Laboulaye meant for the statue to honor the slaves, as well as mark the recent Union victory in the Civil War and the life of Abraham Lincoln. However, by the time sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi's 151-foot statue was erected in New York Harbor in 1886, European immigration had begun to rise dramatically and the statue took on a whole new symbolism, he says. "It was entirely related to slavery, and not about immigration at all," Newman says. "The 'liberty' was the freedom of the slaves." Joseph also is checking into the possibility a 21-inch model of Lady Liberty completed by Bartholdi in 1870 may have been based on the likeness of a black woman. That model, now in the Museum of the City of New York, has a broken chain around its hand; the statue in the harbor has a more discreet broken shackle on its foot. Joseph refused Monday to say what she has discovered so far. Her final report is due for release this summer. "Those people who are looking for a report that's going to support the most traditional interpretation of the Statue of Liberty are going to be disappointed," she said, "and those who are looking for a report that will support the rumors in their entirety will also be disappointed. "History is much more complicated than that. It's not a sound bite." There is wide agreement that Liberty's now-familiar association with immigration was not planned by the statue's creators. Poet Emma Lazarus' ode to "the huddled masses," written in 1883 as part of a fund-raiser for the statue, had no place at the unveiling ceremonies three years later. It wasn't until 1903 that lines from the poem were attached to the statue's pedestal. Copyright 2000 Associated Press. All rights reserved. |
Tuesday 8Feb2000 02:47PM EST By Geraldine Sealey NEW YORK — The National Park Service’s official history of the Statue of Liberty seems pretty clear on the monument’s origins. It reads: “The people of France gave the Statue to the people of the United States over 100 years ago in recognition of the friendship established during the American Revolution." It’s an explanation most Americans should remember from elementary school history class. Thanks to the words of poet Emma Lazarus, who wrote the ode to the "huddled masses yearning to breathe free" emblazoned on the statue’s pedestal, the statue is widely associated with immigrants. But now Park Service researchers are investigating reports that Lady Liberty was originally intended to be a monument to emancipated black slaves. The 151-foot statue, sculpted by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, was erected in New York Harbor in 1886. Was the gift from France actually conceived to mark the end of slavery? Boston-based Park Service ethnographer Rebecca Joseph is leading the effort to answer that question and plans to release a report next summer. Collecting the Evidence Already, the Park Service has collected quite a bit of evidence on the subject, according to a spokeswoman, but so far, the agency is not being specific about its findings. "There are things out there that taken at face value would lead one to believe this was very much a part of [slavery]," said Park Service spokeswoman Edie Shean-Hammond. "We could roll out a bunch of facts in one direction and a bunch of facts in the other direction. We’ll be ready to talk about it next summer." Speculation has focused in part on French historian Edouard de Laboulaye, who proposed the monument. De Laboulaye was a known leader of the French abolitionist movement, Shean-Hammond said. And Bartholdi was believed to have had connections to friends of de Laboulaye as well, she said, including those involved in the abolitionist movement. Researchers will also examine the origins of a 21-inch model of the statue on permanent display at the Museum of the City of New York. The terra cotta model, which may have been designed after the likeness of a black woman, has what appears to be a broken chain around its left hand. The 21-inch model, completed by Bartholdi around 1870, stands next to a model of the actual statue, which features a similar broken shackle on its foot. Questions Circulated for Years Reports of the Park Service research first surfaced today in the Boston Globe. But questions about the statue’s origins have been circulating for years, especially on the Internet. Kassy Wilson, exhibitions and publications specialist for the Museum of the City of New York, says she has fielded many calls about the terra cotta Bartholdi model in her two years there. "I tell people, 'Come and see it and make up your own mind,'" she said. "I don’t have any proof one way or the other." And the Park Service has been queried about the statue’s origins for years as well, Shean-Hammond said, "even before the Internet." To celebrate Black History Month last year, McDonald’s restaurants gave away coloring books with Happy Meals that featured a picture of a black Statue of Liberty, she says. Indeed, Shean-Hammond says, the Park Service research is aimed at probing whether widely accepted explanations of the nation’s historic sites need further examination. "We keep on finding out there is so much more to every historical place we run," she said. "We’re trying to tell the whole story of our cultural heritage." Copyright 2000 ABC News. All rights reserved. |
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