Meh, she wasn’t actually made for us. The artist that made her was commissioned by the Sultan of The Ottoman Empire, and he paid up front, so the artist got to work in the mid 1800s. The Sultan wanted her standing at the entrance to the Suez Canal, which was due to open soon. That’s why she’s Egyptian/ Middle Eastern. It also explains her crown. She’s a light bearer. She was supposed to signify the knowledge and wealth that flowed from the Ottoman Empire to Europe and Asia. She originally carried a torch and a bouquet of spices and herbs.
Unfortunately for the Sultan, he died before the artist, or the canal, was completed. When the artist contacted the new Sultan to let him know he was ready to construct her, the new Sultan told him to go ahead and melt her down for all he cared. He graciously said that the artist didn’t owe him any money back, and that he was certain that the artist did good work, but he believed that statues were graven images, and therefore they no longer wanted the statue.
Fast forward to 1871.
The artist has a meeting with The French Ambassador to America, The President of the French-American Friendship Society, and himself. Turns out the US centennial is coming up. The ambassador suggested that the artist remove the bouquet, and replace it with a book that contains the most American sounding thing ever, and they’ll never notice she isn’t European. So the ambassador and president gathered up the funding, and sent the newly dubbed “Lady Liberty,” from the Parisian warehouse she had been gathering dust in, to New York in time to be fully erected by July 4, 1876.
Meh, she wasn’t actually made for us. The artist that made her was commissioned by the Sultan of The Ottoman Empire, and he paid up front, so the artist got to work in the mid 1800s. The Sultan wanted her standing at the entrance to the Suez Canal, which was due to open soon. That’s why she’s Egyptian/ Middle Eastern. It also explains her crown. She’s a light bearer. She was supposed to signify the knowledge and wealth that flowed from the Ottoman Empire to Europe and Asia. She originally carried a torch and a bouquet of spices and herbs.
Unfortunately for the Sultan, he died before the artist, or the canal, was completed. When the artist contacted the new Sultan to let him know he was ready to construct her, the new Sultan told him to go ahead and melt her down for all he cared. He graciously said that the artist didn’t owe him any money back, and that he was certain that the artist did good work, but he believed that statues were graven images, and therefore they no longer wanted the statue.
Fast forward to 1871.
The artist has a meeting with The French Ambassador to America, The President of the French-American Friendship Society, and himself. Turns out the US centennial is coming up. The ambassador suggested that the artist remove the bouquet, and replace it with a book that contains the most American sounding thing ever, and they’ll never notice she isn’t European. So the ambassador and president gathered up the funding, and sent the newly dubbed “Lady Liberty,” from the Parisian warehouse she had been gathering dust in, to New York in time to be fully erected by July 4, 1876.