Description:
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..." Nearly 40 percent of all Americans today can trace their ancestry to people who passed directly beneath the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor after emigrating from Europe. The most colossal metal statue ever built, Lady Liberty represents the freedom and better way of life that immigrants sought in America. This big, elegant book traces the history of the "Mother of Exiles," from her inception at a dinner party in France, to model-building by Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, a young French sculptor, to internal engineering by another young Frenchman named Eiffel, to its presentation from the French to the American people in 1886. Liberty is chock-full of compelling--sometimes overwhelming--details, including Eiffel's revolutionary use of iron girders in latticelike grids for the internal support, and the discord in the American committee charged with raising money for the pedestal. Always beaming through the facts, however, is the passion of Lady Liberty's creators and supporters. Lynn Curlee's gorgeous paintings capture the staggering size of both the project and the statue itself. This book is a stunning gift for anyone who has ever been awestruck at the first sight of the majestic symbol of America's freedom. It includes statue specifications, a timeline, and a bibliography. For another Curlee tribute to an American icon, read Rushmore. (Ages 9 to 12) --Emilie Coulter
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