What did Mark Twain say about the Statue of Liberty?

Mark Twain hated it. Lady Liberty looked too hearty and well-fed for his taste, reflecting the insolence of prosperity rather than the insults and humiliations freedom had endured over the ages. Protestant clergymen denounced it as pagan and idolatrous.



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A gift from the people of France, she has watched over New York Harbor since 1886, and on her base is a tablet inscribed with words penned by Emma Lazarus in 1883: Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

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” Her sonnet “The New Colossus” was chosen to be inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty, the monument it celebrates, and it remains a most moving and eloquent expression of an American ideal: “Give me your tired, your poor,” the sonnet concludes, “Your huddled masses…

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Lazarus' famous sonnet depicts the Statue as the Mother of Exiles: a symbol of immigration and opportunity - symbols associated with the Statue of Liberty today. After its initial popularity however, the sonnet slowly faded from public memory.

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The French paid for the statue and its transportation, the Americans for the pedestal and installation. In 1875, Bartholdi completed the torch-bearing arm first and exhibited it at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876. He exhibited the head at the World's Fair in Paris in 1878.

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Construction of the Statue was completed in France in July 1884. The massive sculpture stood tall above the rooftops of Paris awaiting her voyage across the sea. Back in America that same year architect Richard Morris Hunt was selected to design the Statue's granite pedestal, and construction got underway.

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The last line of the poem reads: Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door! Emma Lazarus is invoking the new opportunities presented to immigrants that make the trek from the Old World to the United States - the golden door is a symbol for their entrance into a land of ...

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Her official name is Liberty Enlightening the World. The statue - also known as Lady Liberty - has many symbolic features. Her torch represents liberty.

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Did You Know?
  • The Statue of Liberty Is 151 Feet Tall (93 meters)
  • Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi Almost Made the Statue in Egypt.
  • Gustave Eiffel Assisted in the Construction of the Monument.
  • The Statue of Liberty Is Coated in Copper.
  • The Statue of Liberty Was Once a Lighthouse.
  • It Is Closer to New Jersey than New York.


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The truss in statue's right shoulder had seriously weakened and was in danger of collapse. And almost half of the iron armature that supports the copper skin had corroded, in part because the statue had become, in effect, a giant battery.

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3. Lady Liberty is struck by lightning 600 times every year. Standing proud, exposed to the elements, the statue has to withstand around 600 lightning bolts every year and, in high winds, the torch can sway by about 5 inches side-to-side!

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It's made of copper, which has oxidised naturally to form a green patina coating which actually protects the copper underneath. It took about 20 years for the Statue of Liberty to change from copper coloured to green!

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Who Was Originally Supposed to Receive the Statue of Liberty? The Statue of Liberty was almost given to Egypt to be placed at the Suez Canal because Bartholdi was very inspired by structures like the Sphinx and the pyramids.

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