Raising Funds for Liberty

“If a monument were to be built in America as a memorial to their independence—I should think it very natural if it were a common work of both nations.” —Édouard René Lefèbvre de Laboulaye, 1865

The Statue of Liberty’s creators believed the project should be a joint effort. The French would pay for the statue; the people of the United States would fund the pedestal. The Franco-American Union was established in 1875 by Édouard René Lefèbvre de Laboulaye to oversee the project. The French Committee, established the same year, was created to coordinate the fundraising in France and the American Committee, established in 1877, was to coordinate fundraising in the United States.

Fundraising included advertising, exhibitions, public events, and the sale of souvenirs. Though wealthy individuals did contribute, it was the small donations of hundreds of thousands of working people and children on both sides of the Atlantic that made the Statue of Liberty a reality.