Beschreibung:

STATUE OF LIBERTY – BARTHOLDI, Frédéric Auguste (1834-1904) An archive of 51 letters, documents, photographs and ephemera concerning Bartholdi's work on the Statue of Liberty and its delivery to New York City, 1875-1886. Comprising: BARTHOLDI. 21 letters (18 A.L.S., 1 L.S. and 2 A.N.S.), 1875-1886 ( two of the ALS's with signatures removed ). – Seven Photographs showing the construction, shipment and displays of the statue, including two signed by Bartholdi – CLEVELAND, Grover. White House card, signed as President – LABAILAYE, Edouard de A.L.S., 25 May 1877. – EVARTS, William. A.L.S. 15 October 1880. – KING, D. H. A.L.S. to G. A. Glaezner. – LESSEPS, Ferdinand de Cabinet card signed, 1886. – 18 pieces of ephemera (banquet invitations, dinner menus, visiting cards, etc.)
STATUE OF LIBERTY – BARTHOLDI, Frédéric Auguste (1834-1904) An archive of 51 letters, documents, photographs and ephemera concerning Bartholdi's work on the Statue of Liberty and its delivery to New York City, 1875-1886. Comprising: BARTHOLDI. 21 letters (18 A.L.S., 1 L.S. and 2 A.N.S.), 1875-1886 ( two of the ALS's with signatures removed ). – Seven Photographs showing the construction, shipment and displays of the statue, including two signed by Bartholdi – CLEVELAND, Grover. White House card, signed as President – LABAILAYE, Edouard de A.L.S., 25 May 1877. – EVARTS, William. A.L.S. 15 October 1880. – KING, D. H. A.L.S. to G. A. Glaezner. – LESSEPS, Ferdinand de Cabinet card signed, 1886. – 18 pieces of ephemera (banquet invitations, dinner menus, visiting cards, etc.) "It is high time for the Americans to take action." A fascinating archive showing Bartholdi prodding, hectoring and ultimately praising his American collaborators in the creation of the Statue of Liberty. The brainchild of Édouard René de Laboulaye, the statue would be France's gift to America with France producing the statue and America creating the pedestal. An inspired Bartholdi set to work, producing the arm and torch which was put on display at New York's Madison Square Park from 1876 to 1882. But the sharp depression of the 1870s cooled American enthusiasm for the project. If it was a gift why should Americans pay anything for it? Especially in hard times? In the autumn of 1882, as his "Colossus" nears completion, Bartholdi chides the New York Committee of the Union Franco-Americáine "...It is high time for the Americans to take action. The Committee wishes to take up the question of official transportation with our government...The moment is very critical, for we are going to be finished in the desired time..." (31 October 1882). In December he reports "We are advancing rapidly and in the Spring our colossus will be seen towering over Monceau park. It is already beginning to be very high, and I think that any amateurs who climb up into the torch will have a rather unusual sensation..." Another source of friction between Bartholdi and the Americans concerned subsidiary rights to reproduce the Statue–a source of revenue through which Bartholdi hoped to recoup some of his enormous out-of-pocket expenses. In April 1883 he agrees to "temporarily" forego some of this income "until the funds [the New York Committee] needs have been gathered... I reserve my rights to sell artists' copies in clay..." (3 April 1883). It galled him to read newspaper reports or receive crank letters accusing him of profiting from this venture. These were "very painful to read. So there are people who think I am getting a 'deal' when I have sacrificed more than 100 thousand francs in the twelve years that I have been involved in the work of the French-American Union! But by 16 July 1884, Bartholdi could breathe easier. The pedestal was now funded and its construction underway. "I have never had any illusions about the American character;" he writes, "but I still remain convinced that certain personalities, certain men–exceptional in their purity, their worthiness, their nobility–essentially American products--are sufficient to counterbalance the wrongs of all the garbage and turbulence that America produces. Now, that is the part of America to which I address myself, and I have found it; that is enough to console me and to enable me to finish my work." He had the great pleasure of taking his elderly mother–whose face was the model for the Statue–to see it before it was dismantled and shipped off to America. "That is a blessing I would not have missed."