Was The Statue of Liberty Modeled On A Muslim Woman?

An Egyptian peasant woman was the first model of Lady Liberty

The Statue of Liberty was a gift from France to the United States of America. It is a colossal neoclassical copper statue on Liberty Island that was designed by the French sculptor, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi.

With the new American President, Donald Trump vocally emphasizing Muslim ban in an crackdown on immigration, there could not be a better time to bring to light this little known irony. Very few people know that the Statue of Liberty that has welcomed immigrants for generations being the symbol of freedom and diversity in America was first sculpted as an Arab Muslim woman.

This may surprise many people who have come to know Lady Liberty as a structure sculpted by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel and designed by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi thus having a French origin. The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the United States by France to celebrate and acknowledge the alliance between the great powers during the French revolution. However, it is a little known fact that the inspiration behind the French designers creation was oddly enough – Egypt.

Inspiration Behind Lady Liberty

Bartholdi on his visit to the Nubian mountains that features colossal figures guarding tombs at Abu Simbel, was much fascinated by the ancient structures and giant public monuments. Bartholdi developed a passion for these ancient architecture and proposed Statue of Liberty for Suez Canal’s inauguration.

He proposed the Statue of Liberty at the Suez Canals entrance but failed to convince Egypt of this idea. So, he thought of proposing his idea of the statue to the United States and thus, changed the original design of the statue from a Muslim peasant woman to that of a Roman goddess.

According to Barry Moreno, author of many books on the Statue of Liberty, the statue was initially envisioned to be in the form of a peasant woman in veil standing 86 feet high and the pedestal rising to a height of up to 48 feet. The early models of Lady Liberty were called as “Egypt Carrying the Light to Asia.”

The Colossus “ Give Me Your Tired”

There was a fundraiser auction for statue’s pedestal. Emma Lazarus wrote a sonnet “New Colossus” for the fundraiser that went as: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

The sonnet, however, failed to garner much popularity and recognition. It failed to make an impression on the public and was forgotten soon after the auction. However, in the 1900, one of the friends of Emma Lazarus started a campaign to honor and memorialize the writer and the sonnet that she wrote for the statue. The initiative garnered good response from the public and the authority. The sonnet is now engraved on a bronze plaque that is mounted inside the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.

Today, the Statue of Liberty continues to be the beacon of hope for many immigrants who have come to the USA and is a immovable fixture of the city of New York and symbol of the United States of America.