Which country is home to the Statue of Liberty?

The Statue of Liberty is in the United States, standing on Liberty Island in New York Harbor. Although France gave the statue to the United States, its physical location and national setting are American.

Officially titled Liberty Enlightening the World, the statue was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi. Gustave Eiffel, who later designed the Eiffel Tower, helped create its internal iron framework. France financed and built the statue, while American donors raised money for its massive pedestal.

The statue arrived in New York in crates in 1885 and was reassembled after the pedestal was completed. It was dedicated on October 28, 1886, during a ceremony led by President Grover Cleveland. Its tablet displays July 4, 1776, in Roman numerals, and a broken chain near its feet symbolizes liberation from oppression.

The Statue of Liberty is often associated with immigration because of Emma Lazarus’s poem “The New Colossus,” whose lines about welcoming the “huddled masses” were added to the pedestal in 1903. The nearby Ellis Island connection strengthened that symbolism.