Who designed the Statue of Liberty’s external sculpture?

Frédéric Bartholdi designed the Statue of Liberty’s external sculpture.

The French sculptor conceived the colossal figure formally known as Liberty Enlightening the World. France gave the statue to the United States to commemorate the friendship between the two countries and the centennial of American independence, although construction and fundraising took longer than originally planned.

Bartholdi developed the statue’s appearance and symbolic details, including its raised torch, tablet, crown, and broken chain at the feet. Engineer Gustave Eiffel and his team designed the internal iron framework that supports the copper skin, so Eiffel was the structural engineer rather than the principal sculptor.

The statue was assembled on Bedloe’s Island in New York Harbor and dedicated on October 28, 1886. Its tablet bears the date July 4, 1776, written in Roman numerals. The famous poem “The New Colossus” was added later, in 1903.