The Statue Of Liberty May Not Have Been Standing In The US!

The Brief:

The famous Statue of Liberty may not have been standing in the US. It may well have been resting in Egypt. It took a piece of good luck and a queer turn of events that the collosal masterpiece became the pride of Americans.

In Details:

As you enter the New York harbour, the collosal structure of Statue of Liberty welcomes you and one feels that the human within has lit up for a moment. With time, this piece of sculpture has come to be identified with the American identities of freedom and democracy. In this scenario how would it feel to imagine the existence of today’s New York harbour without the Statue of Liberty?!!! However queer it might feel like, but the reality might well have been so had not, in 1869, the then Egyptian Khedive, Ismail Pasha opted to erect a lighthouse instead of erecting the sculpture at the head of the Suez Canal in Port Said, Egypt.

The story runs like this…

At the heydays of industrialization, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, the French sculptor par excellence, while visiting Europe and middle east with fellow artists, was greatly inspired by the Nubian monuments at Simbel during his visits of Egypt in 1855-56. The huge ancient Egyptian structures like the Pyramid of Giza, the Sphinx, etc. completely redefined his aspirations. He began to dream of erecting collosal sculptures and public monuments. Around the time of inauguration of the Suez in 1869, the Egyptian Government expressed the desire to erect a lighthouse at the head of the Suez. Bartholdi, envisaged a robe-clad veiled Egyptian peasant woman holding a lighted torch aloft as a gigantic sculpture to adorn the northern entry of the Suez Canal at Port Said in Egypt. Yes! Just like the Statue of Liberty. As per the accounts of Barry Moreno, Bartholdi studied the art of the Collosus envisaging a figure of Libertas for this venture. The structure was planned to be 86 feet tall standing on a pedestal 48 feet high. The early models of this structure was named as ‘Egypt (Progress) carrying the Light to Asia’. Bartholdi’s design had metamorphosed from an Egyptian fellah (Arab peasant) into a collosal goddess.

However, the dream was not to come true. The then Egyptian Khedive (ruler), Ismail Pasha considered the proposal a bit too expensive coming just after the huge costs incurred in construction of the Suez Canal. Eventually, a 180 feet tall lighthouse replaced this great venture at Port Said.

The close of the Egyptian episode marked a lucky beginning of the American episode for the Statue of Liberty. In 1865, Eduoard de Laboulaye had proposed a monument to be erected in the US representing Freedom and Democracy. Bartholdi had all along been a supporter of the idea. During his visits to the US, he had spotted the Bedloe’s Island at the New York harbour for erecting this great idea. He considered New York as a gateway to America. Bartholdi had overtly acted to garner ideological and financial support for this project. After the Egyptian refusal, Bartholdi assisted Laboulaye in creating a Franco-American Union and raised 400,000 Francs for funding of the project. Several expositions followed in the US where parts of the Statue were put to public display for fundraising. Finally in 1884, after the statue was fully constructed, the same was gifted to the US Ambassador by the Franco-American Union. In 1886, the statue was assembled, erected and inaugurated in New York and Bartholdi was always part of the ongoings. At the inauguration ceremony he climbed atop the mighty Statue of Liberty to unfurl the French Tricolour that had veiled the statue’s face.

New York had got its new monument and America, a new pride.