Lighting the way
Today, the Statue of Liberty represents more than the fulfillment of one man’s dream and the history of friendship between two nations. It is also an embodiment of the ideals outlined in the Declaration of Independence: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But without the determination of her creator, a concentrated fundraising campaign, and the help of intellectual property protections, she may never have lifted her lamp beside the golden door. As America kicks off its 250th year, join us in walking through the history of innovation that resulted in one of the nation’s most iconic symbols.
16 min read
Each month, our Journeys of Innovation series tells the stories of inventors or entrepreneurs who have made a positive difference in the world. This month’s story focuses on sculptor Auguste Bartholdi and his use of design patents to crowdsource funds for the Statue of Liberty.
Do you know an innovator or entrepreneur with an interesting story?
One hundred years after the Declaration of Independence was signed, marking the birth of a new democratic experiment, Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park teemed with activity. From May through November of 1876, millions of visitors streamed through the fairgrounds of the Centennial Exposition, exploring more than two hundred structures built to house everything from tropical plants to priceless works of art to the latest mechanical marvels.
Far more than a celebration of 100 years of independence, the Centennial Exposition was an opportunity for the United States to step out of the dark shadow of a devastating civil war and reintroduce itself as an innovative world power moving into its second century of existence.
Patriotic bunting and ornate fountains adorned avenues wide enough to accommodate the massive crowds. The admission fee of 50 cents gave fairgoers the opportunity to learn about new inventions like the typewriter, and to experience the then-unfamiliar tastes of bananas, popcorn, and Heinz ketchup. In June, attendees braved a heat wave to see a public demonstration of Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone, patented just a few months prior. And powering many of the displays in the Machinery Hall was a massive, 45-foot-tall Corliss steam engine, with the flywheel alone weighing in at 56 tons.
However, the Corliss engine was not the only colossus on display in 1876.
Sculptor Auguste Bartholdi chose the arm bearing the torch to travel to America because it could have potentially been used as a stand-alone statue.
(Image courtesy of the Library of Congress)
Tucked on a narrow strip of land between one of the fairground’s wide avenues and the banks of a lake, a 42-foot copper arm jutted out of a nondescript white tent and into the sky. The sculpture’s gargantuan hand held aloft a torch large enough for multiple people to comfortably stand along its base. For a small additional fee, visitors to the fair could climb a ladder to take in the view of the exposition from the torch themselves.
It was America’s first true look at the Statue of Liberty.
As the arm and torch attracted daily crowds and, as one New York Tribune article claimed, “provoke[d] interesting comment,” the rest of the statue was under construction in a bustling workshop in Paris. However, the statue’s completion was not a foregone conclusion. Although the statue itself was a gift from France, America was tasked with raising funds for the massive pedestal needed for the towering figure’s display.
The statue’s creator, Auguste Bartholdi, took an active role in this years-long crowdsourcing campaign, and in doing so, even sought patent protection for the statue’s iconic design. Delving into this journey reveals not only Bartholdi’s determination to make his dream a reality, but the process by which this national symbol developed. As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the Statue of Liberty’s origins serve as a reminder of how innovation can shape our national consciousness.
“A man can conceal himself easily in many of the folds of the drapery; and the light which the statue holds in its hands is so large that two persons can walk around it and pass each other.”
The statue’s journey from an idea to a powerful national symbol began a decade prior to the Centennial celebration, and it would be another 10 years before Lady Liberty held her torch aloft in New York Harbor. But her origins were steeped in the legacy of the American Revolution, and more broadly, the promises of a democracy centered around the inalienable rights outlined in the Declaration of Independence.
In 1865, the end of the American Civil War and the passage of the 13th Amendment abolished the institution of slavery in the United States. Following these world-changing events, French political thinker and abolitionist Edouard de Laboulaye first proposed presenting a monument to the United States to commemorate this triumph of human freedom. De Laboulaye intended for the monument itself to be a gift from France, a gesture of friendship between two nations who fought side-by-side in the war for American independence nearly a century prior. A strong advocate for democracy, he also hoped the monument would spark anew a desire for freedom among the people of France.
To make his vision a reality, de Laboulaye enlisted the assistance of French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi.
Auguste Bartholdi’s artistic vision and tireless determination brought the Statue of Liberty from idea to reality.
(Image courtesy of the Library of Congress)
Born in the contested Alsace region of France in 1834, Bartholdi spent much of his early life studying under sculptors and architects in Paris. As a young adult, Bartholdi first became fascinated with colossal sculptures while traveling in Egypt in 1856. While gazing upon the Colossi of Thebes, twin statues which stretched 60 feet tall, Bartholdi wrote, “Their kindly and impassable glance seems to ignore the present and to be fixed upon an unlimited future.”
At the age of 22, Bartholdi had discovered his life’s goal: to sculpt his own modern colossus.
Bartholdi’s first proposed location for his massive statue was the newly opened Suez Canal, and although this project never progressed beyond sketches, his depiction of a female figure on a pedestal holding a torch aloft struck familiar notes. After more than a decade focusing on artistic endeavors and attempts to find a potential home for such a structure, Bartholdi’s work was interrupted by his duties as an officer in the Franco-Prussian War. He watched as his home region was annexed by Germany and his nation was thrown into political turmoil. In 1871, reeling from the aftermath of this conflict, Bartholdi made the decision to travel to the United States. Prior to his trip, he met with de Laboulaye, and the pair reaffirmed their now joint goal to convince both France and America to support and finance the statue.
It was also during this time, that Bartholdi began to add details to his sketches that would eventually be incorporated into the design of the Statue of Liberty. The torch-bearing arm remained, but Bartholdi added a diadem with seven spokes. As the focus of the statue shifted towards commemorating the centennial of the Declaration of Independence, a tablet bearing the date of July 4, 1776 in Roman numerals was added.
Bartholdi had multiple goals for his trip to America, but one of the most important was to scout prospective locations for the statue. An 1886 article in The Columbian described the sculptor’s “moment of inspiration,” which came on a “beautiful spring morning” while he was a passenger on a steamship traveling into New York Bay. Purportedly, Bartholdi imagined the “majestic figure of Liberty towering with her torch” and “lighting the crowded harbor, with its tributary rivers and the vast, blackened cities on their borders, the very image of a teeming, populous miniature world.”
From that moment on, New York Harbor was the only home that Bartholdi considered for his new colossus.
Bedloe's Island, a military post in New York Harbor, was designated as the future home of the Statue of Liberty in 1877.
(Image courtesy of the Library of Congress)
The other goal of Bartholdi’s trip was to build support for the statue in America. Armed with introductory letters from de Laboulaye and a small model of the statue’s design, the sculptor began to pitch the idea that the statue would be a gift from France to the United States to commemorate the nation’s centennial year.
Initially, Bartholdi was met with disinterest, but he persisted, unwilling to let his dream languish once more. Eventually, he found allies among members of the private Union League clubs in Philadelphia and New York. When Bartholdi returned to France, it was with optimism that the Statue would be built.
In 1875, the newly formed Franco-American Union officially announced its plans for the Statue of Liberty’s construction, with France responsible for financing the Statue itself and America footing the bill for the pedestal. Construction on the Statue began quickly, with the French people eventually contributing around $250,000 toward its completion.
America, however, had some practical concerns. A handbook produced by Statue of Liberty National Monument cites a few potential reasons for the lack of enthusiasm amongst Americans for funding the pedestal. Some took issue with the Statue’s proposed location, either believing discussion should be opened to alternative cities or unwilling to donate their money for what they viewed as a statue for New York City alone. Others, however, struggled to believe that the behemoth statue would ever be completed. With the statue being constructed an ocean away, Bartholdi found that his sketches and scale models were not enough to capture American confidence.
Bringing a piece of the statue to America was one way he tried to alleviate this. Another was giving Americans a small piece of Lady Liberty to call their own.
“[B]ut through it all shines, as it ought to shine, the suggestion of the eager, proselyting passion for liberty for which the men of the Revolution spilled their blood in France and in America, and which, if in modern days only one of a sheaf of memories, is for both countries the most prized of them all.”
During the month that Bartholdi displayed the statue at the Centennial Exposition, he also sold photographs and even scrap metal from the torch in order to raise funds for the pedestal. The nation’s press took notice, with coverage of Bartholdi’s visit found in newspapers from Massachusetts, Ohio, Wisconsin, and of course, New York. In a letter to the editor in the New York Tribune, one citizen asked how to subscribe to help raise funds for the pedestal, proclaiming, “We should consider it an honor and a privilege to each contribute our share of the cost... What better memorial of the Centennial year could Americans inaugurate than this!”
The Centennial Exposition officially ended on November 10, 1876, but fundraising for the pedestal continued. For the next six years, the arm and torch found a home in New York’s Madison Square Park. In January of 1877, the statue’s advocates formed the American Committee of the Statue of Liberty. When Bartholdi returned to France to supervise the construction of the rest of his colossus, he designated the Committee’s secretary, Richard Butler, as his proxy in the United States. Looking to capitalize on the success of mementos from the Centennial, the Committee began selling scale models and photographs of the Statue in order to raise funds. However, this presented a new conundrum.
How could they ensure others looking to profit did not copy Bartholdi’s design?
According to one account, the Statue of Liberty’s wrist alone took 200 sacks of plaster to complete.
(Image courtesy of the Library of Congress)
One tool Bartholdi used to protect against copycats were design patents. A fairly new form of intellectual property protection at the time, design patents were first authorized by Congress in 1842 to protect an article of manufacture where the novelty and value was in its appearance rather than the function. Technological advances in manufacturing allowed for cast iron pieces, textiles, and statuary to be both more intricately designed and more efficiently produced, and the artisans creating these pieces lobbied for a way to protect their unique patterns and embellishments. By the time Bartholdi applied for his first patent, more than 1,000 design patents had been granted by the Patent Office.
Design patent protection was extremely well-suited for Bartholdi’s goals. As he was seeking to protect the design of the statuettes and images used for fundraising, rather than the statue itself, they were considered an article of manufacture, making any potential infringements easier to navigate. The fourteen-year limit on the protection afforded by the patents did not pose an issue, as Bartholdi’s goal was to raise the necessary funds as quickly as possible. And design patents were considered fairly straightforward to apply for and receive, a characteristic reflected in Bartholdi’s patent application files.
On October 16, 1878, Bartholdi submitted his first patent application for the design of an ornamental bust, retaining the services of a New York City law firm, S.H. Wales & Son, and paying the required fee of $45. His description highlights many of the statue’s familiar features, including the head “surmounted” by a “diadem, from which rays proceed,” the “eyes having a distant gaze,” and the statue’s countenance “with an air of dignity and determination, symbolic of Liberty and Enlightenment.”
Bartholdi’s attorneys submitted a single amendment on October 22. Apparently, Bartholdi had originally used only his last name to sign the patent petition, and it was a requirement of the Patent Office that an inventor’s full name be included. The anglicized spelling of “August” was subsequently scrawled in red pencil anywhere Bartholdi’s name appeared.
The patent for the statue’s bust was granted on November 5, less than a month after the application was submitted. Bartholdi must have found the process and benefits of patent protection effective, for he submitted a second patent application for the full statue just months later, on January 2, 1879.
From sketches to patent applications to completion, Auguste Bartholdi was involved in nearly every aspect of the decades-long process to create the Statue of Liberty.
(Images courtesy of the Library of Congress)
With claims for the full statue design being more complicated, the patent application process for this second patent took a bit more time. Bartholdi was seeking protection for a wider variety of carvings and engravings, in materials including but not limited to metal, stone, terra-cotta, and plaster-of-paris. His specification also included print and photographed versions of the statue, providing maximum flexibility for the design’s protection.
On January 14, the patent examiner assigned the patent wrote to Bartholdi with his objections. The first was a matter of word choice; Bartholdi had initially written “the design may be executed in whole or in part glyptically,” and the examiner stated that the word “glyptically” was “not to be found in the English language.” This line was amended to “any manner known to the glyptic art” in the final version. The examiner also asked Bartholdi to make one of his claims more specific. As it was written, they found the works more aligned with the “proper subject matter of copyright and not of letters patent.” In response, Bartholdi’s attorneys submitted their amendments, and the design for a statue was patented on February 18.
The American Committee of the Statue of Liberty eventually grew to over 400 members and brought the statue’s likeness to Americans from coast to coast.
(Image courtesy of the Library of Congress)
Patents in hand, the American Committee began selling statuettes to raise money for the pedestal. For one dollar, subscribers would receive a six-inch, bronzed version of the statue, which one ad touted as “a perfect fac-simile[sic]” of the scale model provided by Bartholdi, “protected by U.S. patents.” Five dollars would upgrade the purchaser’s statuette to 12 inches. The Committee produced tens of thousands of the statuettes for a national advertising campaign.
Nationalizing the fundraising drive while keeping the interest of the New Yorkers, who were consistently providing the majority of the funds, was one of the main challenges of the Committee. At various times during the statue’s construction, other cities around the nation expressed interest in providing a home for Lady Liberty within their borders. Bartholdi used this to his advantage, cleverly motivating New Yorkers by implying that Philadelphia might be permitted to keep the statue if they did not raise the necessary funds. And when Boston tossed themselves into the arena as an option, it ignited a rivalry between the two cities, both steeped in Revolutionary War history. A New York Times article in 1882 responded to Boston’s offer, leaving little of the city’s sentiment up for interpretation: “We have more than a million people in this City who are resolved that that great light-house shall be smashed into minute fragments before it shall be stuck up in Boston Harbor.”
When sales of the statuettes slowed and the pedestal was still nowhere near completion, the statue’s champions turned to other creative fundraising avenues. In 1883, the Pedestal Fund Art Loan Exhibition launched, a collection of paintings, sculptures, musical instruments, costumes, furniture, literary works, and items for daily use. “In assembling the rare and carefully selected Loan Collection,” the Committee’s goals were to ensure the funding of the pedestal was an endeavor “not one community alone, but the entire nation, should feel an interest,” as well as “awakening among us a potent influence in art.”
Among this collection was a featured poem by Emma Lazarus, written especially for the exhibition. The poet described the statue as “A mighty woman, with a torch, whose flame/Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name/Mother of Exiles.” Titled “The New Colossus,” Lazarus’ poem spoke to an emerging understanding of the symbol of optimism and welcome the Statue of Liberty would eventually provide to millions of immigrants entering New York Harbor for the first time.
A bronze plaque bearing the text of Emma Lazarus’ “The New Colossus” was placed inside the statue’s base in 1903.
(Image courtesy of the Library of Congress)
Fundraising ebbed once again in 1885, when it was determined that another $100,000 would be needed to complete the pedestal. At that point, Joseph Pulitzer, the editor of the newspaper The New York World, took up the cause. Soliciting donations from everyone from schoolchildren to the richest captains of industry, Pulitzer was able to help harness the excitement of the statue’s arrival from France. It arrived at its permanent home of Bedloe’s Island on June 19, awaiting only the pedestal’s completion.
Finally, by the fall of 1886, the statue, formally titled “Liberty Enlightening the World” was ready to be unveiled.
On October 28, New York Harbor was filled with fog. Yet the weather did little to deter a crowd of 1 million from celebrating the dedication of the statue, which from the ground to the tip of the torch soared over 300 feet into the air.
Amidst the thunderous roar of ceremonial guns, Auguste Bartholdi himself released the French flag, revealing Lady Liberty’s face to the world.
“My dream has been realized. I can only say that I am enchanted. This thing will live to eternity, when we shall have passed away, and everything living with us has moldered away.”
A century and a half after the Statue of Liberty’s arm ignited the curiosity of spectators in Philadelphia, America is preparing for another milestone commemoration – 250 years since the Declaration of Independence marked our nation's birth. The statue’s long and uncertain journey to completion has largely been buried amidst a sheaf of new meanings and memories. Bartholdi’s sketches, letters, and patent drawings have yellowed and faded, and the shining copper surface of the statue itself has oxidized into its now-familiar green.
And yet Bartholdi’s prediction holds true. Liberty stands tall, not merely a silent sentinel, but the reminder of a promise. Her left hand clasps the date of independence, holding tight to the nation’s history, while her distant gaze looks towards the horizon, to a future yet to be built.
Her arm held high, the American colossus lifts her torch.
Credits
Produced by the USPTO’s Office of the Chief Communications Officer. For feedback or questions, please contact inventorstories@uspto.gov.
Story by Rebekah Oakes. Graphic on the USPTO.gov homepage and at the beginning of the story is by Gabriella McNevin-Melendez.
References
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“Bell Demonstrates Telephone.” American Academy of Arts & Sciences. 2025. https://www.amacad.org/news/bell-demonstrates-telephone
Berenson, Edward. The Statue of Liberty: A Transatlantic Story. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012.
“The Big Statue of LIberty.” New York Tribune. October 24, 1886.
“Catalogue of the Pedestal Fund Art Loan Exhibition.” New York: National Academy of Design, 1883.
“Centennial Correspondence” and “The Statue of Liberty.” The Eaton Democrat. May 18, 1876.
“The Centennial: The Great Anniversary Exhibition in Philadelphia.” The Opelousas Courier. May 27, 1876.
“Centennial International Exhibition of 1876 Souvenir Fan.” National Museum of American History. 2025. https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_1067964
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“History & Culture.” Statue of Liberty National Monument. 2025. https://www.nps.gov/stli/learn/historyculture/index.htm
Levine, Benjamin and Isabelle F. Story, Statue of Liberty National Monument. Washington, D.C.: National Park Service Historical Handbook Series, 1954.
“Liberty: Imposing Ceremonies at the Unveiling of Bartholdi Statue.” The Daily Times. October 29, 1886.
Margino, Megan. “The Arm That Clutched the Torch: The State of Liberty’s Campaign for a Pedestal.” New York Public Library. 2015. https://www.nypl.org/blog/2015/04/07/statue-liberty-pedestal
New York Times. October 3, 1882.
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“Statue of Liberty souvenir, New York, New York, 1885” National Museum of American History. 2025. https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_492499
