| Project Abstract: |
The NPS is beginning work on a General Management Plan (GMP) for the Statue of Liberty National Monument which, in conjunction with the Comprehensive Interpretive Plan (CIP) that is nearing completion, will provide direction for programming that takes into account revised and expanded park interpretive themes. Key to prospective changes in site interpretation is better understanding the symbolic significance of the Statute of Liberty, as well as its artistic and engineering significance, and how that significance has changed over the course of the monument's history.
Existing themes are premised on the constancy of meaning and pertain to the Statue's construction and restoration, its importance as a universal symbol of freedom and liberty, the military use of Liberty Island, and the story of immigration. Immigration and freedom are connected in Emma Lazarus' noted poem celebrating the Statue's welcome to the "huddled masses," dedicated at a Pedestal Fund dinner before 1886 and forgotten until 1903 when it was placed in the base of the Statue.
The work of this project is the research and writing of an account of the origins and history of the Statue of Liberty, with particular emphasis on the Statue's symbolic meaning and importance over time. The study will provide an account of the origins of the Statue within its French and American contexts, and analyze the changing means of the monument between the 1870s and the present, including the connection between the Statue and immigration. A special effort will also be made to describe the views of the Statue held by African-Americans. A discussion of the idea of political symbolism and an account of the Statue as a political symbol will be included. The study will be a thorough investigation, utilizing primary and secondary sources and will be undertaken by the Indiana University Center for the Study of History and Memory. |
