4 1 In 1876 construction of the Statue of Liberty began We artisans were at the foundry of Gaget Gaulthier Co in Paris France to start the work The dream to build the Statue of Liberty began several years ago in 1865 Another artisan told me artist Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi attended a party with other influential Frenchmen They discussed the United States and its Armand Luc-Cardell French Artisan
5 upcoming centennial birthday on July 4 1876 The date would mark 100 years since America signed the Declaration of Independence The group thought it would be great if France gave the United States a gift for this occasion It would honor the country’s freedom and celebrate the friendship between France and the United States Monsieur Bartholdi wanted to make a huge monument as a gift He sketched and drew until he came up with the creation The statue would be of a woman wearing robes and a crown She would represent Libertas the Roman goddess of freedom Her right arm would be raised in the air She would hold a torch in her right hand The statue’s left hand would hold a tablet with the date of the country’s independence July 4 1776 In 1875 Bartholdi made Find another chapter that discusses the meaning behind the Statue of Liberty How does that perspective compare to this perspective Analyze this
a four-foot statue out of clay This would be the design for the larger statue He also began working with a committee called the Franco-American Union to raise money to build the statue Monsieur Bartholdi and we artisans first made a nine-foot statue based on the four-foot statue Then we created a 36-foot statue as a larger model At last we began work on the final 151-foot statue We sectioned the statue into smaller parts because it was so large This way we could work on several parts at the same time Monsieur Bartholdi watched to make sure we formed each piece of the massive structure correctly After the right arm and torch were completed they were packed and shipped to the United States They were going to be showcased at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia Pennsylvania in August 1876 Our American friends then saw just how large the gift from the people of France would be 6
7 Many artisans worked on each part of the statue including the right hand and torch
