Statue of Liberty National Monument, Liberty Island NY 1955 Vintage Postcard UNP For Sale

89754 Statue of Liberty National Monument Liberty Island, New YorkStatue of Liberty, Liberty Island, Manhattan, New York County, NY
Photo by F Nigro
12 Persons can stand in torch42 feet Right arm length2 ft 6 in Distance between the eyes40 Persons can stand in the head4 feet 6 in Length of nose3 feet Width of mouth305 feet 1 in Total height450,000 lbs Weight of the statue
\"The New Colossus\", a sonnet by American poet Emma Lazarus\"Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,With conquering limbs astride from land to land;Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall standA mighty woman with a torch, whose flameIs the imprisoned lightning, and her nameMother of Exiles. From her beacon-handGlows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes commandThe air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
\"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!\" cries sheWith silent lips. \"Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!\" \"
\"The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World; French: La Liberté éclairant le monde) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, within New York City. The copper-clad statue, a gift to the United States from the people of France, was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and its metal framework was built by Gustave Eiffel. The statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886.
The statue is a figure of a classically draped woman, likely inspired by the Roman goddess of liberty Libertas. In a contrapposto pose, she holds a torch above her head with her right hand, and in her left hand carries a tabula ansata inscribed JULY IV MDCCLXXVI (July 4, 1776, in Roman numerals), the date of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. With her left foot she steps on a broken chain and shackle, commemorating the national abolition of slavery following the American Civil War. After its dedication the statue became an icon of freedom and of the United States, being subsequently seen as a symbol of welcome to immigrants arriving by sea.
The idea for the statue was conceived in 1865, when the French historian and abolitionist Édouard de Laboulaye proposed a monument to commemorate the upcoming centennial of U.S. independence (1876), the perseverance of American democracy and the liberation of the nation\'s slaves. The Franco-Prussian War delayed progress until 1875, when Laboulaye proposed that the people of France finance the statue and the United States provide the site and build the pedestal. Bartholdi completed the head and the torch-bearing arm before the statue was fully designed, and these pieces were exhibited for publicity at international expositions.
The torch-bearing arm was displayed at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, and in Madison Square Park in Manhattan from 1876 to 1882. Fundraising proved difficult, especially for the Americans, and by 1885 work on the pedestal was threatened by lack of funds. Publisher Joseph Pulitzer, of the New York World, started a drive for donations to finish the project and attracted more than 120,000 contributors, most of whom gave less than a dollar (equivalent to $34 in 2023). The statue was built in France, shipped overseas in crates, and assembled on the completed pedestal on what was then called Bedloe\'s Island. The statue\'s completion was marked by New York\'s first ticker-tape parade and a dedication ceremony presided over by President Grover Cleveland.
The statue was administered by the United States Lighthouse Board until 1901 and then by the Department of War; since 1933, it has been maintained by the National Park Service as part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument, and is a major tourist attraction. Limited numbers of visitors can access the rim of the pedestal and the interior of the statue\'s crown from within; public access to the torch has been barred since 1916.
DevelopmentOriginAccording to the National Park Service, the idea of a monument presented by the French people to the United States was first proposed by Édouard René de Laboulaye, president of the French Anti-Slavery Society and a prominent and important political thinker of his time. The project is traced to a mid-1865 conversation between Laboulaye, a staunch abolitionist, and Frédéric Bartholdi, a sculptor. In after-dinner conversation at his home near Versailles, Laboulaye, an ardent supporter of the Union in the American Civil War, is supposed to have said: \"If a monument should rise in the United States, as a memorial to their independence, I should think it only natural if it were built by united effort—a common work of both our nations.\" The National Park Service, in a 2000 report, however, deemed this a legend traced to an 1885 fundraising pamphlet, and that the statue was most likely conceived in 1870. In another essay on their website, the Park Service suggested that Laboulaye was minded to honor the Union victory and its consequences, \"With the abolition of slavery and the Union\'s victory in the Civil War in 1865, Laboulaye\'s wishes of freedom and democracy were turning into a reality in the United States. In order to honor these achievements, Laboulaye proposed that a gift be built for the United States on behalf of France. Laboulaye hoped that by calling attention to the recent achievements of the United States, the French people would be inspired to call for their own democracy in the face of a repressive monarchy.\"
\"The New Colossus\" is a sonnet by American poet Emma Lazarus (1849–1887). She wrote the poem in 1883 to raise money for the construction of a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World). In 1903, the poem was cast onto a bronze plaque and mounted inside the pedestal\'s lower level.
History
Statue of Liberty in New York CityThis poem was written as a donation to an sale of art and literary works conducted by the \"Art Loan Fund Exhibition in Aid of the Bartholdi Pedestal Fund for the Statue of Liberty\" to raise money for the pedestal\'s construction. Lazarus\'s contribution was solicited by fundraiser William Maxwell Evarts. Initially, she refused but writer Constance Cary Harrison convinced her that the statue would be of great significance to immigrants sailing into the harbor. Lazarus was involved in aiding Jewish refugees to New York who had fled antisemitic pogroms in eastern Europe, and she saw a way to express her empathy for these refugees in terms of the statue.\"- Wikipedia
\" \"The New Colossus\" was the first entry read at the exhibit\'s opening on November 2, 1883. It remained associated with the exhibit through a published catalog until the exhibit closed after the pedestal was fully funded in August 1885, but was forgotten and played no role at the opening of the statue in 1886. It was, however, published in Joseph Pulitzer\'s New York World as well as The New York Times during this time period. In 1901, Lazarus\'s friend Georgina Schuyler began an effort to memorialize Lazarus and her poem, which succeeded in 1903 when a plaque bearing the text of the poem was put on the inner wall of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.
On the plaque hanging inside the Statue of Liberty, the line \"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!\" is missing the comma. The plaque also describes itself as an engraving; it is actually a casting.
The original manuscript is held by the American Jewish Historical Society.\"- Wikipedia
This vintage postcard from 1955 features the stunning Statue of Liberty National Monument on Liberty Island in New York City. The postcard is an original, published and distributed by Craft Productions, Brooklyn, NY. The card is made of cardboard and paper, with a standard size of 5.5 x 3.5 inches.
The postcard is a single unit, with a divided back and chrome features. It is a perfect addition to any collection, depicting the beautiful and historic statue of Liberty. The era of the postcard is photochrome (1939-Now) and it is a great representation of tourism, travel, art, patriotism, architecture, famous places, seascape, and cities & towns. This postcard is unposted and was manufactured in the United States.