Plan of Bedloe’s and Ellis Islands

U.S. War Department

1843

The island Bartholdi chose as the site of his monumental statue was originally named Bedloe’s Island after its first European owner, Isaack Bedloo. The name was changed to Liberty Island in 1956 by the US Congress. The island had been used for many purposes in the centuries leading up to the building of the Statue of Liberty. Thousands of years before Europeans colonized the Americas, the Lenape people regularly visited the island to hunt deer, fish, and gather oysters. Archaeological evidence of their activities, including oyster shells, animal bones, and pottery sherds, are layered into the island’s soil.

After Europeans settled in the region, the island was used as a quarantine station, a military site, a prison, a summer residence, and a hospital. Between 1807 and 1811, Fort Wood, a US military installation, was built on the island as part of the coastal fortifications protecting New York Harbor. The star-shaped Fort Wood became the perfect base for the Statue and its pedestal.

National Archives at College Park - Still Pictures (RDSS), National Archives Identifier 535419