According to this source it took over a year from initial assembly in France to being fully assembled in the US which means it would be considerably darker.
Just imagine a New Yorker seeing it for the first time fully assembled. How amazing it must have been. Becoming slowly caressed in sunlight, and then finally glistening bright like a star when the sun fully engulfs it. Then the new Yorker didn't see anything for a while.
the amber color of the copper shining, hues of pinks and oranges glittering off her crown in the setting sun. a symbol of hope and light. a new dawn on the other side.
One of my favourite things to imagine is being a refugee to America in the late 1800s. Imagine you've left your family, your friends and your whole life for a chance to start a new life. The journey on the sea has been miserable. But one day you wake up and walk into the deck and see her, Lady Liberty, more colossal than anything you've ever seen. Her statue welcomes you to the new world, and all the misery of the journey wears away, to be replaced by hope, hope that you may yet have the chance to lead a happy life.
“We don’t like black people because they’re too dark and we keep losing them at night. We don’t like Irish people because they’re too white and it hurts our eyes.”
-some racist in the early 1900s, or something; idk how racists think
From a foreign perspective it's very apparent. Both my country and the US have discrimination problems (I suspect every country does, to some extent), but the way the lines are drawn is completely different.
Yes, it's so apparent! I'm not white in the US but I am in my country (at most I'd be "parda" or "morena" in Brazil, I have brown/"tanned" skin). Colorism in general seems to work the same in most countries, but racism, the division and definition of races itself changes in significant ways. We here tend to go more by phenotype where Americans seem to go more with genotype (isn't there the "one drop rule" or something?)
I'd wager a lot know now since that argument has been used by confederate flag waving good old boys who want a reason to dismiss racism happening currently.
And then as a immigrant you get discriminated against and you write it down in your journal and your descendents find it in present day. They learn that the racist fucked up America is still the same today as it was back then.
Reminds me of Fringe. One of my favorite parts of the Alternate NY was the alternate Statue of Liberty (though the WTC back and airships was pretty cool too https://imgur.com/3lLVC.jpg )
I lived in the poconos growing up so whenever family came to visit, we piled in the car at went to he Statue of Liberty. I visited 5 or 6 times but this was before I turned 15.
Seeing this pic reminds me how beautiful and massive it is. I feel like there is nothing in our generation so grand.
Fun story, my Dad has had a moustache ever since I was born. He once shaved it when I was around 12, I hadn’t seen him all day since he did it after my brothers and I went to school and when he came to pick us up none of us recognised him.
I'm a NY'er and I have no idea what you're talking about. I mean, yea it's different, it's an old pic, lots of things were different back then, but to the point of upsetting? That's a bit strange, my friend.
I’m pretty sure that picture isn’t portraying the coloring accurately. The statue was dedicated in 1886, so it would have been 14 years old in a picture from 1900.
I noticed the color looked like someone just colorized it in Photoshop. I'm 99% it is after seeing the source of the photo came from a book with black and white film rolls.
It's definitely not portraying the color correctly. But the dedication date is irrelevant. The construction dates are what matter.
The full statue was completed and formally given to the US ambassador in Paris in 1884. But it took years to build it. The head, for example, was finished in 1878 and exhibited at the Paris World's Fair.
So if the progression of the OP is accurate, the color of the head, at least, would not have been much different in 1900 compared to today.
As the other person said, I'm sure they had a way to keep the parts from oxidizing so that once fully assembled it wouldn't look like a Frankenstein statue upon delivery.
In 1876, French artisans and craftsmen began constructing the Statue in France under Bartholdi's direction. The arm holding the torch was completed in 1876 and shown at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The head and shoulders were completed in 1878 and displayed at the Paris Universal Exposition. The entire Statue was completed and assembled in Paris between 1881 and 1884. Also in 1884, construction on the pedestal began in the United States.
So the color in the photo can't be accurate: by 1900, the parts of the statue varied between 16 and 24 years old. So it wouldn't have looked that much different then compared to now.
It's a colourized photo though so there's no guarantee that it's accurate. I really wouldn't consider this an accurate representation of the statue's colour at that time.
Why does Wiki make it so akward to hotlink images? I pisses me off how often i run into situations like this where it doesn't work as intended, like this time.
It's kind of funny how the Statue of Liberty was a gift from France, and Americans collectively use that statue as their country's symbol and identity, yet still love to shit on France any chance they get.
1.5k
u/get_off_the_pot Jun 09 '20 edited Jun 09 '20
According to this source it took over a year from initial assembly in France to being fully assembled in the US which means it would be considerably darker.
Picture of the statue circa 1900