60: Why is the Statue of Liberty so important?

A beacon of hope, the Statue of Liberty has welcomed millions of immigrants to the United States and to a new life. The statue overlooks New York harbour, close to Ellis Island immigration centre: if the USA is a land of immigrants, Ellis Island is where those immigrants landed. 

Built by France for the USA, there was some debate about which city the statue should be placed in. Then there was how to pay for a pedestal large enough to hold Liberty. 

We are grateful to Suzanne Mannion, Director of Public Affairs at the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, for arranging our visit, and to our interviewee, Jonathan da Silva, Assistant Manager of the American Family Immigration History Centre on Ellis Island.

After the end theme music you’ll find these questions, followed by outtakes and an extra recording we made in the Statue of Liberty Museum:

1. Where was the first federal immigration centre for the USA?

2. What was the ‘kissing post’?

3. Why do you think immigrants would be happy to see the Statue of Liberty when their ship arrived in New York?

4. Who paid for the pedestal - the base platform - that the Statue of Liberty would be built on?

5. Can you name any other city that requested that the Statue of Liberty be placed their area?

6. What do the seven rays or spikes on the Statue’s crown represent?

Here’s our website, where you'll find photos, info about each episode and links to our social media: https://www.dadandmelovehistory.com/ - here, you can also listen to episodes.

For mature history lovers: read industry reviews of Dad’s World War II novels, A Chance Kill and The Slightest Chance, at paulletters.com. Available as e-books, as well as in paperback. Dad’s first wartime novel, A Chance Kill, is a love-story/thriller based on real events in Poland, Paris, London and Prague. The Slightest Chance follows the remarkable true story of the only escape from Japanese imprisonment by a Western woman during World War II.

Please rate and review us wherever you get podcasts. And share our podcast on social media and recommend it to friends – that's how we'll keep going. We will bring you episodes throughout the year, so stay subscribed on your podcast app!

Podcast cover art by Molly Austin

All instrumental music is from https://filmmusic.io and composed by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Sound effects are used under RemArc Licence. Copyright 2024 © BBC