, Columnist
Lady Liberty’s Radical History
The statue is not necessarily the welcoming icon many Americans would like to think.
A welcome or a warning?
Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images North AmericaThis article is for subscribers only.
At a time when immigration and indeed the very nature of America’s heritage are being reexamined, it is worth considering the history of one of America’s greatest icons: the Statue of Liberty.
Images of the statue are so ubiquitous that it is tempting to take her for granted. But Lady Liberty, as we now call her, is quite a radical creation, both visually and conceptually. She does not carry the traditional American nationalist symbols of the flag and the eagle, instead holding the Declaration of Independence, a representation of liberty and human rights.