Which U.S. president presided over the Statue of Liberty's dedication ceremony?

President Grover Cleveland presided over the Statue of Liberty’s dedication ceremony.

The ceremony took place on October 28, 1886, on what was then called Bedloe’s Island. Cleveland, a former governor of New York and the sitting U.S. president, led the official proceedings after a large parade through Manhattan and a nautical procession across the harbor.

The dedication celebrated the completion of the French gift to the United States. Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi designed the statue, while French workers assembled its copper sections around the iron framework before the monument was dismantled, shipped in crates, and rebuilt in New York.

The event included speeches by figures such as Senator William M. Evarts and orator Chauncey Depew. A flag covering the statue’s face was lowered prematurely when Bartholdi mistook a pause for the end of a speech. The celebration also helped launch New York’s ticker-tape-parade tradition.