Lady Liberty Model Returns to Smithsonian Castle Display

From kindergarteners to retirees, everyone who sees the nearly four-foot Lady Liberty lights up with recognition and wonder.

The remarkable model now stands in the Smithsonian Castle's "American Aspirations" exhibition, giving visitors a rare chance to see sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi's original work up close. He created this painted terra cotta and tin version around 1884, the same era he was building the full 305-foot monument that would soon tower over New York Harbor.

The model has quite a history. It graced the U.S. Capitol from 1884 to 1887, helping build excitement for the massive statue still under construction. Now it usually lives at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, but it's spending two months at the Castle as part of the 250th anniversary celebration of the Declaration of Independence.

"What I wanted was to find the tension between objects that would obviously tell you historical significance and objects that we help you find that significance," says Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III. The miniature Liberty stands alongside Thomas Jefferson's writing desk where he drafted the Declaration of Independence, Amelia Earhart's flight suit, and Martin Luther King Jr.'s original March on Washington speech.

The full statue's creation story is pure crowdfunding magic before crowdfunding was even a thing. When fundraising for the pedestal stalled in 1884, newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer made a national plea. He reminded Americans this was "a gift of the whole people of France to the whole people of America."

His campaign worked. By August 1885, over $100,000 poured in, with most donations being just a dollar or less. The statue arrived in 214 boxes from France and was completed in 1886 on what's now Liberty Island.

Why This Inspires

Curator Karen Lemmey marvels at how the statue still resonates across generations. "It remains familiar, and it asserts itself," she says. "And that's really hard for a monument from more than 100 years ago."

The model proves that big dreams start small, and that ordinary people coming together can create something extraordinary that inspires the world for centuries.