France gave the Statue of Liberty to the United States as a gift commemorating the alliance between the two countries during the American Revolution.
The statue, officially titled Liberty Enlightening the World, was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi. Its internal iron framework was engineered by Gustave Eiffel, who later designed Paris’s Eiffel Tower. France completed the statue in sections, shipped it across the Atlantic, and presented it to the United States in 1885.
The monument was dedicated on 28 October 1886 on Liberty Island in New York Harbor. Its tablet bears the date 4 July 1776, and the famous poem “The New Colossus” was added later in 1903. The statue is often described as copper-colored, but its original copper surface developed a green patina through oxidation.