1886 – The Statue of Liberty is dedicated in New York Harbour by President Grover Cleveland.
Liberty Enlightening the World is a colossal neoclassical copper sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbour. A gift from the people of France to the people of the United States, the statue is a figure of Libertas, a robed Roman liberty goddess. She holds a torch above her head with her right hand and in her left hand carries a tabula ansata inscribed JULY IV MDCCLXXVI (July 4, 1776 in Roman numerals), the date of the US Declaration of Independence. A broken shackle and chain lie at her feet as she walks forward, commemorating the recent national abolition of slavery. After its dedication, the statue became an icon of freedom and of the United States, seen as a symbol of welcome to immigrants arriving by sea.