What event did the Statue of Liberty commemorate?

The Statue of Liberty commemorated the centennial of American independence. French political thinker Édouard de Laboulaye proposed the project in the 1860s as a monument honoring the United States’ independence and democratic ideals.

The intended centennial was in 1876, marking 100 years since the Declaration of Independence. Political and financial delays meant the statue was not completed until 1886, ten years after the anniversary. France provided the statue, while the United States supplied the site and built the pedestal.

The statue’s design reinforces this meaning. Its tablet bears the Roman-numeral inscription “JULY IV MDCCLXXVI,” referring to July 4, 1776. The figure also holds a torch representing enlightenment and liberty, while the broken chain beneath her foot evokes emancipation and freedom.

The statue was not originally designed primarily as an immigration monument, although it later became strongly associated with immigrants arriving through New York Harbor. Emma Lazarus’s poem “The New Colossus,” added to the pedestal in 1903, helped establish that later interpretation.