France gave the Statue of Liberty to the United States as a gift.
The monument commemorated the alliance between France and the United States during the American Revolution and symbolized liberty and republican government. French political thinker Édouard René de Laboulaye proposed the idea, sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi designed the statue, and engineer Gustave Eiffel helped create its internal supporting framework.
France funded and built the statue, while the United States constructed its pedestal. The statue was assembled in New York Harbor and formally dedicated on October 28, 1886. Its copper skin was originally a reddish-brown color; natural oxidation gradually produced the familiar green patina.
The figure represents Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom. She holds a torch in her raised right hand and a tablet in her left inscribed with July 4, 1776, the date of the American Declaration of Independence. The broken chains at her feet are easy to miss and represent liberation from oppression.