Statue of Liberty in Paris Canvas

Photographer: Albert Fernique, Paris France, 1883 Sculpter: Frederic Auguste Bartholdi The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the United States of America by France.  All the United States of America had to do was design and build a pedestal for her to stand on. The cost for the pedestal was about $200,000 or in today's money about 6 million dollars. The cost for the construction of the statue was covered by regular everday French men and woman who donated small sums of money for her creation. totalling about $250,000. The Fundraising committee raised about half the cost of the pedestol. The US Congress at the time refused to cover the other half so the Committee asked average Americans for small donations.  Their attempt to ask Chicagoans and Californians for financial assistance to build a pedestal for a statue in New Jersey for New Yorkers was not going well. San Francisco as well as Boston and Philadelphia offered to cover the cost of the pedestal only if the statue could be in their