The Statue of Liberty received its dedication ceremony in 1886. France presented the monument to the United States, and President Grover Cleveland dedicated it on October 28, 1886, in New York Harbor.
The statue was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, with engineering assistance from Gustave Eiffel. Its formal name is Liberty Enlightening the World. The copper statue depicts Liberty holding a torch in her raised right hand and a tablet in her left hand inscribed with July 4, 1776, in Roman numerals.
The monument commemorated the alliance between France and the American revolutionaries during the American Revolutionary War. It was also intended as a celebration of republican ideals. The statue arrived in sections, was assembled on Bedloe’s Island, and later became one of the most recognizable symbols of the United States.