France donated the Statue of Liberty to the United States in 1886.
The monument, officially titled Liberty Enlightening the World, stands on Liberty Island in New York Harbor. France presented it to commemorate the centennial of the American Declaration of Independence and to express the historical friendship between the two countries. The statue was dedicated on 28 October 1886.
Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi designed the sculpture, while Gustave Eiffel and his engineering team developed its internal iron framework. The copper exterior was assembled in sections, and the completed statue was shipped across the Atlantic before being reconstructed in New York.
The figure represents Libertas, the Roman goddess of liberty. She holds a torch and a tablet inscribed with the date 4 July 1776. The statue’s famous poem, “The New Colossus,” was written by Emma Lazarus and added to the pedestal in 1903.