Uncovered Sketches Expose Shocking Last-Minute Redesign of the Statue of Liberty
So, picture this: the Statue of Liberty, that colossal lady holding a torch high above New York Harbor, had a bit of a last-minute makeover — but not the kind you’d catch on a reality show. Nope, these changes were scribbled in red ink on original engineering drawings discovered in 2018 inside a dusty folder once owned by Gustave Eiffel himself (yeah, the Eiffel Tower guy). It turns out Lady Liberty’s arm wasn’t always poised as we see it today; earlier designs had it bulkier and raised even higher — talk about a flex! What’s fascinating (and a little wild) is how these late tweaks slipped in when most of the statue was already built. Makes you wonder: how does one pull off a major redesign in the eleventh hour on such an iconic monument? Dive into the unexpected story behind those concealed sketches, intricate calculations, and the tussle between Eiffel and Bartholdi that shaped the Lady we salute today. LEARN MORE
These newly-uncovered drawings show that late alterations were made to Lady Liberty’s raised arm.
Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique MapsNewly found sketches from Gustave Eiffel’s workshop show a different design for the Statue of Liberty.
In 2018, map dealer Barry Lawrence Ruderman procured a folder containing materials that once belonged to famed architect Gustave Eiffel in an auction in Paris.
Eiffel — best known for his eponymous tower structure in Paris — was commissioned to construct the skeleton of the Statue of Liberty by designer Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi.
Ruderman’s purchase was supposed to be blueprint copies related to the statue’s construction. But little did he know that the folder would also contain never-before-seen original sketches of the statue’s construction, revealing late changes that had been made to its structural design.
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