Google Celebrates 130 Years of Lady Liberty

130 years of Lady Liberty in the US thanks to our friends in France! #GoogleDoodle
https://g.co/doodle/56nq7b

    Thousands upon thousands of visitors and immigrants have passed thru this harbor and have greeted Lady Liberty.    

 

    Today we celebrate her as a beacon welcoming you to a new land and new future with hopes and dreams of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
  The land of the Free, the home of the brave and a place I call home. USA.
    The ones who risked their lives, leaving their previous life behind, sent their life savings and sometimes leaving their loved ones behind in and effort to make a better life for themselves. Just like my paternal grandparents did coming over on a ship from southern Wales.
  Whether it's personal, financial, or religious freedom we all want what matters most to each of us.  Lady Liberty symbolizes hope and the notion that there is something bigger and better in our future. That is all I can only wish for for my own family.
  My friends, sail on , dream big, and never give up hope.

  A little history of the design and significance of the statue of Liberty:

ORIGINS OF THE STATUE OF LIBERTY
Around 1865, as the American Civil War drew to a close, the French historian Edouard de Laboulaye proposed that France create a statue to give to the United States in celebration of that nation’s success in building a viable democracy. The sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, known for largescale sculptures, earned the commission; the goal was to design the sculpture in time for the centennial of theDeclaration of Independence in 1876. The project would be a joint effort between the two countries–the French people were responsible for the statue and its assembly, while the Americans would build the pedestal on which it would stand–and a symbol of the friendship between their peoples.

 Source: History.com Staff, History of Liberty, 2009, http://www.history.com/topics/statue-of-liberty

Interesting note: the crown atop her head  represents the seven seas and seven continents....

 Bartholdi set sail for his first visit to the United States. The idea for a monumental statue to greet visitors came to him aboard his ship as it entered New York City's harbor, especially when he noticed a tiny, uninhabited island that seemed an ideal site for the base. Quickly, he sketched out a female figure with a crown of rays around her head, holding a torch aloft in one hand and clutching a tablet with the date of July 4, 1776, in the other. He called itLiberty Enlightening the World.

In 1878 Lady Liberty's head was finished and exhibited at the Paris World's Fair. The seven points of its diadem, or crown, represent both the seven seas and the seven continents. The assembly process formally began in 1881, and was stalled for a few years because the fund-raising effort in America had not yet collected enough to erect the pedestal. “Ingrates grumbled about gift horses, pagan goddesses, revolutionaries and bad taste,” wrote Dowling. “One suggested that the statue be immersed upside down in Central Park's reservoir. Everyone except New Yorkers felt that New Yorkers should bear the cost.” The statue's strong classical inlfuence, which paid homage to the era of antiquity when Greek and Roman figures achieved their most impressive artistic perfection, was also somewhat controversial. Bartholdi seemed to have modeled his after a Roman goddess called Libertas. As Barry Moreno, author of The Statue of Liberty Encyclopedia, told New York Times journalist Glenn Collins, back then some “Roman Catholics objected to New Yorkers making obeisance to a 151-foot-high heathen goddess smack in the middle of New York Harbor.”

Source:  "Bartholdi, Frédéric-Auguste." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 17 Jun. 2015<http://www.encyclopedia.com>.