WEBVTT - Why did France give us a Statue of Liberty? 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.519 You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope 0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:12.600 and iHeartRadio. Guess what Will? 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:13.520 What's that Mango? 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:16.240 Did you know that Ellie the Elephant, who is the 0:00:16.280 --> 0:00:19.880 mascot of the WNBA team here at the New York Liberty, 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:22.720 Did you know she has two stylists? 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:23.880 Two stylists. 0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:26.320 I'm definitely familiar with Ellie the Elephant, and it has 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:29.160 been so much fun to see how much buzz she's. 0:00:29.040 --> 0:00:30.440 Gotten over the past year or so. 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:34.040 But I did not think about a mascot needing a stylist. 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:37.879 Well, you know, Ellie isn't just any old mascot. She twerks, 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:41.680 she goes to childish Gambino concerts, and she is a 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:46.040 fashion trendsetter. And in the twenty twenty four WNBA season, 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:48.960 she was spotted carrying a four hundred and twenty dollars 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:52.760 person She's even been featured in Vogue for her style. 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:54.640 I don't know, it makes me feel sort of sorry 0:00:54.640 --> 0:00:57.319 for mister Mett. He just seems pretty pretty normcore at 0:00:57.320 --> 0:01:00.360 this point. But I can't say that I were member 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:03.760 seeing Ellie like way back when, Like how long has 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:05.560 she actually been representing the Liberty? 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:08.000 Yeah, I was actually wondering about this too. Apparently she 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:12.320 only debuted in twenty twenty one, but she has obviously 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:16.240 made quite an impression, and it makes sense considering she's 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:19.480 kind of a tribute to so much New York history, Like, like, 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:22.080 what the fact that she's an elephant? For one, I'm 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:24.480 not sure if you remember this, but P. T. Barnum 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:28.520 brought twenty one elephants and seventeen camels over the Brooklyn 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:31.319 Bridge in eighteen eighty four, and that was to help 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:35.760 prove it was really sturdy. And then there's her name, Ellie, 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:38.679 which is an obvious name for an elephant, but also 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:41.880 a nod to Ellis Island. And of course she wears 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:44.360 a crown that looks just like the Statue of Liberties. 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:48.520 But watching Ellie's rise to fame and the Liberty becoming 0:01:48.720 --> 0:01:52.160 WNBA champions this year, it had me thinking more about 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:55.040 the Statue of Liberty itself. And you know, it's kind 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:57.320 of easy to take it for granted as this ever 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:01.240 present symbol of freedom and immigration, but it got me 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:03.920 to wondering, why did the French give this thing to us? 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:07.120 And how do we get it here? So why don't 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:07.720 we dive in. 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:31.400 Hey their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm 0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:33.600 Will Pearson and as always, I'm here with my good 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:37.400 friend Mangesh hot Ticketter and sitting somewhere behind that big booth, 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:39.240 that's our pal and producer Dylan. 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:40.520 Now he looks like he's. 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:43.119 Getting warm from carrying that big torch over his head, 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:43.919 don't you think, Mango. 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:46.400 I don't know why he's got a torch in there. 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:50.480 He's always complaining that we're lighting scented candles and birthday 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:52.639 aches around his equipment, and this. 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:55.440 Doesn't really seem fair, It really doesn't. But I hope 0:02:55.480 --> 0:02:57.640 that he finds a big bucket of water or fire exting. 0:02:57.680 --> 0:02:59.440 We're sure to put that out because we've got an 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:03.880 episode record here, but let's get to it. So, Mango, 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:06.800 you obviously live in New York City, and I'm curious 0:03:06.800 --> 0:03:09.800 how many times have you actually visited the Statue of Liberty. 0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:13.400 I mean so many times. I ended up going so 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:16.160 many times that I decided to create like a different 0:03:16.240 --> 0:03:19.080 tour of weird things to take people to just so 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:20.720 I didn't have to go to the Statue of Liberty. 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:23.600 So there was a nap room in the Empire State 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:26.040 building for a while, there was a secret museum and 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:29.560 an elevator shaft. There's a jewelry store that sells bond 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:32.720 me in the back, like that type of thing. But weirdly, 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:35.560 after working on this episode, I kind of want to 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:37.880 make another trip to the Statue of Liberty because I'm 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:40.480 really in awe of this thing and I kind of 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:41.440 want to see it up close. 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:42.440 Yeah, I get that. 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:44.560 It's definitely one of those things that I think you 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:47.120 appreciate it more with time and the more you just 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:51.080 think about the fact that this giant statue exists. 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:52.280 There, like right in the middle of the water. 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:55.640 I noticed it every time I fly in, Like every time, 0:03:56.240 --> 0:03:58.480 for whatever reason, I always want to try to catch 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:00.400 a quick glimpse of it, just because it's such a 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:03.400 remarkable thing. But all right, well, why don't you kick 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:05.600 off the story for us, So tell us, let's let's 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:07.880 go back to the beginning. Tell us who came up 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:10.560 with the idea of putting up a giant statue in 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:11.360 the New York Harbor? 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:15.680 Right? So the whole thing began in eighteen sixty five 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:18.320 at a dinner party at the house of Eduard de 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:21.599 la Boulie, and he had a bunch of politicians and 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:25.360 intellectuals over they were chatting about politics and current events, 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:28.480 and the discussion kind of moved into the topic of 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:31.760 the United States. And to be clear, this probably wasn't 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:34.479 totally random, considering that la Boulie was the author of 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:36.920 a three volume history of the US right. So he's 0:04:36.920 --> 0:04:40.640 bringing people onto his home turf. And this party also 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:45.000 came pretty soon about after the Confederates had surrendered to 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:50.000 the Union and after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Apparently the 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:52.680 French and actually the rest of the world had been 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:56.720 watching the US Civil War closely seeing if this Republic 0:04:56.800 --> 0:04:59.839 could hold, and the people at this party were definitely 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:02.920 courage when it did. But the news of Lincoln's assassination 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:06.120 really hit them hard. In fact, according to a peace 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:10.400 by our pal Linda Rodriguez Mcrabbie, frenchmen across the country 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:13.200 were heartbroken by this news, and so much so that 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:16.760 more than forty thousand French citizens contributed to a fund 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:20.280 to award Mary Todd Lincoln a gold medal as a 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:22.520 gesture of gratitude to her husband. 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:24.560 Yeah, I mean, it is a touching tribute. And I 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:27.160 actually had not heard that story before but it's also 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:29.479 a little bit weird, right, like, we're sorry your husband 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:31.960 was assassinated, but you know what, here's a gold medal 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:32.719 from our country. 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:35.320 Yeah, I mean, I guess it's better than a silver 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:39.159 or bronze. But back to this dinner party, this group 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:41.960 of intellectuals was talking about how impressed they were that 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:45.480 the US had persevered through these events, right, and it 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:48.720 was obviously linked to current events there. France too, at 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:51.560 the time, was dealing with issues of abolition, and many 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:54.120 of these partygoers were part of the efforts to abolish 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:59.320 slavery in France's African colonies. And also France had fairly 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:00.719 recently had a whop of their own. 0:06:00.880 --> 0:06:02.520 You know, honestly, it's so hard for me to keep 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:05.560 track of French revolts, Like I did not realize that 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:07.240 one happened in the eighteen sixties. 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:10.159 Yeah, so this one actually happened in eighteen fifty one. 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:14.520 But Napoleon the Third, who was Napoleon Bonaparte's nephew, refused 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:16.440 to leave the office of the president when he was 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:20.520 supposed to, and he declared himself Emperor France. So at 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:23.240 this dinner party, the group was like, how is this 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:27.400 baby country keeping it together while we're still struggling. 0:06:27.560 --> 0:06:29.599 Mm hmm. I can imagine, you know, like lots of 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:32.120 French dinner parties in the eighteen sixties where this was 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:35.560 being discussed, and just trying to picture all of this discussion. 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:37.599 But how is it that this one led to the 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:40.680 building of a massive statue. That's what's still so strange 0:06:40.720 --> 0:06:40.919 to me. 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:45.599 Yeah. So there was also a sculptor in attendance there. 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:50.200 His name was Frederic Auguste Bartoldi, and Bartoldi became famous 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:52.839 in the eighteen fifties for a statue of a French 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:55.840 general named gene Rapp and La Boulie was kind of 0:06:55.839 --> 0:06:59.440 spitballing at his party, and so he said, well, France 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:01.800 and the US are great friends, we supported the American 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:04.720 Revolution and everything. What if there was a statue for that? 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:07.280 And then they actually did it. I mean, that's what's 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:09.880 so amazing about this whole thing. They built the statue, 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:12.040 We've covered it, so it's time for the fact off, right. 0:07:12.720 --> 0:07:17.119 Not exactly so, after the party ended, Bartoldi started working 0:07:17.120 --> 0:07:19.480 on plans for a different idea he had. He had 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:23.080 this vision of a statue slash lighthouse for Egypt. It 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:25.320 was going to sit at the entrance of the Suez Canal. 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:28.840 He titled it Egypt carrying the Light to Asia. And 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:31.360 if you squint at his painting of what this would 0:07:31.400 --> 0:07:34.240 look like, you could kind of mistake it for Lady Liberty. 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:36.920 It's a woman on a pedestal holding a torch. She's 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:39.840 dressed in different garb, and she's raising her other hand. 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:43.440 But the Egyptian government turned him down and the idea 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:45.320 was scrapped, you know, for the time being. 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:47.640 Yeah, I mean it's tough when your whole thing is 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:51.400 making massive statues and putting them in very prominent places, 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:54.200 you do have to get used to some rejection in 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:54.840 the process. 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:58.800 Yeah, And that might be especially true for Bartoldi, who 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:02.320 actually should be noted that he had the most supportive 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:06.400 mom any artist could dream of. After his dad died 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:09.800 when Bartoldi was a young child, his mom moved him 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:12.520 and his brother from the city of Colmar, which is 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:16.080 closer to that i'll says, Lorraine region, to Paris, and 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:18.760 as he got more and more into drawing and sculpture, 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:22.120 his mom totally supported his art career, not just by 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:24.680 buying him chisels and stuff. She actually used to reach 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:26.800 out to journalists to get them to write about her son. 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:29.000 She also paid for his art studio where he made 0:08:29.040 --> 0:08:33.040 these massive creations. Apparently that statue of General Rapp which 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:35.920 I mentioned earlier, it almost hit the studio ceiling he 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:39.959 was in, but the statue ends up winning him twenty 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:42.840 thousand francs in an art contest. It was actually too 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:45.040 big to fit into the doors of the expo building 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:47.880 where all the other contest pieces were, so it had 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:51.440 to be placed in front of the building. And the 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:54.440 whole thing that Bartoldi takes away from this experience is 0:08:54.480 --> 0:08:56.880 that big art gets big attention. 0:08:57.080 --> 0:08:59.000 Yeah, I mean that makes a lot of sense. So 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:02.840 after the Egyptian government rejects Bartoldi, does he start thinking 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:04.520 about the United States again or what? 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:07.400 Well, first he goes off and fights in the Franco 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:10.680 Prussian War, and then in eighteen seventy one, after that 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:14.120 war ends, le Boulier and Bartoldi meet back up and 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:17.880 get refocused on this statue idea. The problem was they 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:19.920 still don't have any idea who would pay for it, 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:22.920 which is something I know you looked into. But before 0:09:22.920 --> 0:09:27.480 we talk about that, let's take a quick break. 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:43.120 Welcome back, to Part Time Genius, where we're talking about 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:46.080 the Statue of Liberty, and it's becoming clear that this 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:48.679 thing isn't quite as simple as just a gift from 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:51.199 the French government to the United States. 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:54.240 No, it's more like a couple of French civilians thought 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:56.520 it would be a cool idea because they liked history 0:09:56.600 --> 0:09:59.080 and art and saw the US from across the bar 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:01.120 and liked its five. I then decide to send it 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:04.720 a statue. But uh, let's talk fundraising. 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:04.640 All right. 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:07.600 So Leabulia and BARTHOLDI needed to figure out if there 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:12.200 were statue fundraising opportunities in the US. Plus Lbulier thought 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:14.440 it would be a good idea for BARTOLDI to spend 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:18.320 some time there for the statue brainstorming, because they still 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:21.880 hadn't finished what this statue could look like. So Bartoldi 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:24.760 takes a small clay model he's made and he crosses 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:27.880 the Atlantic. Now this was June of eighteen seventy one. 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:31.000 When he arrives in New York City. He wrote Laboulia 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:34.640 a letter describing the city wide eyed like he wrote, quote, 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:37.920 everything is big here, even the green peas. 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:38.600 I love that. 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:42.960 But despite the inspiring size of the peas Bartholdi still 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:45.800 had some concerns. So he thought the biggest barrier to 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:49.720 his statue project would be quote, the American character, which 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:50.959 is hardly open. 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:53.920 To things of the imagination. It's pretty big dig there. 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:57.000 But also the English wasn't great, so this whole thing 0:10:57.080 --> 0:10:59.280 was going to be a challenge from the very beginning. 0:10:59.760 --> 0:11:02.280 Yeah, that sounds particularly hard if you don't speak the language. 0:11:02.360 --> 0:11:06.000 So how did Bartoldi adapt to our would you say, 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:07.359 unimaginative way? 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:07.920 Exactly? 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:10.800 Well, he quickly learned that he couldn't pitch the statue 0:11:10.880 --> 0:11:14.200 to people as a joint project between France and the US. 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:16.840 He wasn't going to get much traction if he did that. 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:20.360 So he did some quick thinking and he rebranded it 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:25.160 as a quote, commemorative monument for eighteen seventy six, acting 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:27.800 like France was already on board to pay for this piece, 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:30.280 and that all the Americans had to do was sit 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:32.760 back and you know, maybe chip in a little for 0:11:32.840 --> 0:11:34.360 the pedestal or something. 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:37.120 Which is obviously stretching the truth a little bit there. 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:37.920 It definitely was. 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:39.959 I mean, in reality, it was just a few men 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:42.719 who even knew about the statue. No money had been 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:45.480 set aside for it, and BARTOLDI had been expecting that 0:11:45.520 --> 0:11:48.760 Americans would pay for half the thing. In the end, 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:51.120 he spends four months in the US. He makes his 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:54.199 way through New England, then crosses the country to California 0:11:54.600 --> 0:11:57.120 and returns all the way back to the East Coast. 0:11:57.559 --> 0:11:59.560 I mean, that's kind of a lot of travel for 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:01.319 that time, right, like going coast to coast. 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:03.480 I thought the same thing. But it's also crazy to 0:12:03.520 --> 0:12:06.440 see who he meets along the way, Like he sits 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:10.080 down with some really heavy hitters, including President Ulysses S. 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:11.360 Grant in New Jersey. 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:14.440 In Salt Lake City, he meets Brigham Young and in 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:17.360 all his meeting people in fact finding, that's how he 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:20.959 lands on the theme of his statue, which is, drum roll, 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:22.600 please liberty. 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:28.320 I'm not like a famous sculptor or anything, but I 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:30.160 feel like I could have gotten there without a four 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:32.600 month brainstorming vacation through the US. 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:34.520 I don't know, Mango, sometimes you got to do all 0:12:34.559 --> 0:12:36.960 those things to come up with that. But it wasn't 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:40.480 as anticlimactic as it might sound like. Liberty was actually 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:43.559 hot button term at the time. It didn't just mean 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:46.720 freedom to everyone. A lot of people associated the idea 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:51.040 with revolutions and violence, but Bartholdi and Laboulie decided to 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:54.000 show a different side of liberty. The statue would be 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:57.400 lighting the way to freedom in a peaceful, lawful way. 0:12:57.920 --> 0:13:01.680 They named it Liberty and Lightning the World. Plus that 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:04.520 nugget of an idea bought Bartoldi and Libulier to the 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:08.800 Roman goddess of freedom Libertas. She was on the seal 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:11.920 of the Second French Republic and some American currency at 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:14.720 the time, which is why the Statue of Liberty wears 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:18.440 a Roman robe. And Libertas was an important figure to 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:21.679 formally enslaved people in ancient Rome, so that made the 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:26.160 choice especially fitting. But like you mentioned earlier, Bartoldi also 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:30.120 took a lot of inspiration from the Suez Canal idea. 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:32.800 So speaking of the connection between the Statue of Liberty 0:13:32.800 --> 0:13:36.120 and slavery, I think people sometimes forget that she has 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:39.120 shackles at her feet, and it is interesting to read 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:41.960 about the different takes on the statue and how explicitly 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:45.200 anti slavery people believed it to be. So you know, 0:13:45.400 --> 0:13:49.160 as we mentioned earlier, people at Libulia's party were abolitionists, 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:53.760 including Libulia himself. But Bartoldi he was actually aiming to 0:13:53.800 --> 0:13:57.080 be more a political with this thing. So, according to 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:00.439 an author Kara Sutherland and her book The Statue of Liberty, 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:05.199 Bartoldi wasn't trying to comment on slavery specifically. To him, 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:09.320 those shackles represented political freedom in general, like America breaking 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:14.560 free from England and persevering through internal conflict. And weirdly, 0:14:14.640 --> 0:14:17.959 those chains were even more prominent in his early sketches. 0:14:18.240 --> 0:14:21.040 Originally Lady Liberty was supposed to hold chains in her 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:24.640 left hand where there's now a tablet. So, regardless of 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:28.600 Bartoldi's intent or his claimed intent, abolition and slavery were 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:32.120 certainly part of the conversation and actually just one more 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:34.960 thing on political views of the time. In eighteen seventy one, 0:14:35.160 --> 0:14:38.320 the working in middle classes attempted in uprising in Paris, 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:41.880 which you know, the government ruthlessly ends up squashing. But 0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:46.320 Lubouliet actually supports the government in this situation because he 0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:50.320 was against the uprisings violent strategy. He did want friends 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:52.800 to be a democracy, but he didn't think this was 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:55.520 the right way to get there, which doesn't sit well 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:58.320 with his friends and colleagues. So in a sort of 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:01.400 self branding way personal for him, it was like a 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:03.600 good time to come out and announce that he was 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:06.560 working on a statue about the beauty of liberty and democracy. 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:09.280 Oh that's funny, all right, Well let's just get back 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:11.720 to the fundraiser for just a second. Because you know, 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:14.560 as you know, art can't be rushed. So it took 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:16.920 a few years for Bartoldi to make a bigger model 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:20.360 out of Terra Cotta for quote liberty and lightning the world, 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:23.280 And finally in eighteen seventy five they were ready to 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:27.240 start fundraising. So Laboulia and his liberal friends began reaching 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:31.120 out to potential donors and holding these fundraiser concerts. They 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:34.200 were looking for donations big and small, so they tried 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:37.320 to connect people from all stations of life, and they 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:39.880 kind of thought the fundraising would go easier because of 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:42.600 what had happened with the gold medal for Mary Todd Lincoln. 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:45.520 I mean, I feel like if these people only knew 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:49.280 how historically significant their donations would be, Like the statue 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:52.480 of Liberty has a critical role in Cloverfield and Independence Day, 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:53.800 Batman Forever. 0:15:53.560 --> 0:15:56.480 And Batman forever, Like that alone, you think people would 0:15:56.560 --> 0:16:00.440 understand but also things like Mad magazine covers. Anyway, they 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:03.440 start working on the statue and Bartoldi gets in touch 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:06.920 with Alexander Gustav Eiffel, who of course would go on 0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:09.760 to design the Eiffel Tower later in his career, but 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:13.400 at this point he's more famous for designing bridges. They 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:16.960 also team up with another important artist and engineer, Eugene 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:21.160 Violette LeDuc to create the statue skeleton, which is made 0:16:21.160 --> 0:16:22.320 of iron pylon. 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:25.240 I kind of love how this story is like a 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:29.040 who's who of the eighteen hundreds. We have presidents, religious leaders, 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:31.720 and now the creator of the Eiffel Tower. Yes, it's amazing. 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:34.000 It's pretty wild seeing it all come together, and their 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:37.520 contributions are pretty significant, which we'll talk about a little 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:40.280 bit later. But even with all of these famous friends, 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:44.080 Bartoldi and Laboulie still needed more money. They knew they 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:47.320 needed Americans to pay for the statue's granite pedestal. It 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:50.080 would cost two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which is 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:53.640 over six million dollars in today's terms, and they hadn't 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:56.720 gotten much money or interest in this just yet. So 0:16:57.360 --> 0:17:00.840 in eighteen seventy six, Bartoldi heads back to the United States, 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:03.840 and this time he goes straight to Philadelphia for the 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:08.120 centennial exposition. Now, right now, they basically only have enough 0:17:08.160 --> 0:17:10.919 money for the arm, so they ship that to the 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:14.000 United States to put it on display in Philly. 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:16.439 And any idea why they start with the arm, like 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:17.280 instead of the face. 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:20.119 Well, they had some rationale behind it, like if they 0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:23.000 couldn't raise enough money, it simply would have been a 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:23.879 standalone piece. 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:26.119 I mean, I guess that makes sense. But did this 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:27.280 publicity start work? 0:17:27.560 --> 0:17:30.000 Actually, it got a lot of people excited, and when 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:32.359 you hear about it, the World's Fair of that time 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:34.919 is kind of amazing. So over the course of that 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:38.640 summer in eighteen seventy six, ten million people from over 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:42.280 thirty countries visited the exhibits, and Linda wrote about this 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:43.080 for mental flaws. 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:43.919 As you mentioned. 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:48.920 Before, the exhibits featured quote, working elevators, electric lights, and 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:53.240 even a live walrus, a live walrus maybe, And apparently 0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:56.960 the programming changed daily, and of course this giant arm 0:17:57.000 --> 0:17:59.159 with a torch that we talked about. But you know, 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:02.080 the funny thing is that most people there didn't realize 0:18:02.080 --> 0:18:04.879 this was a fundraising gimmick or even a celebration of 0:18:04.920 --> 0:18:07.159 liberty or whatever it was. They just thought it was 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:10.520 a way to get a view of surrounding counties, so 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:13.200 they stood in line. They paid fifty cents to climb 0:18:13.240 --> 0:18:16.479 up the arm and stand on the torch's balcony. And meanwhile, 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:19.760 Bartholdy kind of stood under it, hustling photos for extra 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:21.280 cash whatever he could do. 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:25.000 Which sounds a little desperate, but I guess that's because 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:25.600 he was right. 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:26.440 Absolutely. 0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:29.159 And the press commented on this, and a September eighteen 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:32.480 seventy six article The New York Times wrote quote, had 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:36.280 the French sculptor honestly intended to complete the Statue of Liberty, 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:40.440 he would have begun at its foundation. From present appearances, 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:42.840 we have now all of the statue that we have, 0:18:43.080 --> 0:18:46.040 unless we are willing to pay the cost of finishing it. 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:48.840 And it is more than doubtful if the American public 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:52.520 is ready to undertake such a task. Now that said, 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:55.159 they were all so kind of impressed by the size 0:18:55.200 --> 0:18:58.000 of the thing, And the same article it reads quote 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:00.760 our eyes were gladdened by the actual receipt of a 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:05.240 section of liberty consisting of one arm with its accompanying hand. 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:09.480 Of such enormous proportion that the thumbnail afforded an easy 0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:12.480 seat for the largest woman now in existence. 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:17.680 That's kind of a weird way, very weird way to 0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:19.760 get back to your first point. It sounds like the 0:19:19.760 --> 0:19:21.960 New York Times didn't really believe we were going to 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:23.440 get much more of a statue. 0:19:23.680 --> 0:19:24.560 Yeah, that's true. 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:27.840 But Bartoldi was determined, so he put out a statement 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:31.399 that he was thinking about letting Philadelphia have the statue 0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:34.960 instead of New York City, which definitely got New York's attention, 0:19:35.520 --> 0:19:38.200 and the city quickly responded was like, no, no, no, 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:41.080 we'll take it. And they announced that the hand and 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:44.600 torch would go on display in Madison Square until the 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:47.639 whole statue was ready to be put up in New 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:48.280 York Harbor. 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:51.040 And how long are we talking about here? 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:51.880 It took a while. 0:19:51.920 --> 0:19:54.399 I mean this took years. The torch was on display 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:57.840 in Madison Square until eighteen eighty two, and as you 0:19:57.880 --> 0:20:00.600 can imagine, it had quite the presence, was as tall 0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:03.480 as the trees and buildings, and you could see it 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:07.040 from blocks away. They sold souvenir photos to raise money, 0:20:07.080 --> 0:20:09.399 and tours could still climb into the arm for that 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:13.160