After the US Civil War, the French historian Eduard de Laboulais floated the idea of creating a large monument to honor the success of the United States in creating and maintaining a democracy.

Almost 20 years later, after significant time in fundraising design and construction, the new statue was unveiled to the public in New York Harbor.

Since then, the gift of France has become a symbol not just of New York but of the United States and has inspired other statues around the world.

Learn more about the Statue of Liberty and how and why it was built on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. The Statue of Liberty had its inception at a dinner held in 1865 outside of the city of Versailles in France.

The French historian and abolitionist, Edoir de Labille, was lamenting the state of French democracy

under Napoleon III and was lauding the United States for having abolished slavery and preserving its democracy

while he was having an after-dinner conversation with the sculpture Frederick Bartoldy.

He is reported to have said, quote, if a monument should rise in the United States as a memorial

to their independence, I think that it is only natural if it were built by a united effort, a common

work of both our countries."

It wasn't intended to be a plan or the start of a project.

It was really just an offhand comment.

It also might very well be the case that this entire story is hypocrisy, and the planning for the statue didn't really start until

1870.

Regardless of when the idea originated, Labule and Bartoldi were both definitely involved.

Bartoldi had an idea in the late 1860s for a giant

sculpture that would stand at the entrance to the brand new Suez Canal. The

statue was to be titled Egypt carrying the light to Asia. The early designs of the sculpture were of a

giant woman in a robe on top of a pedestal holding a torch. And if that sounds

kind of familiar you are not mistaken. The statue was intended to be 86 feet or 26

meters tall with the pedestal, but it was never constructed because the

Ottoman ruler of Egypt couldn't afford it. The Franco-Prussian War put any plans on hold, but by 1871 the war was over,

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