On October 28th 1886 the Statue of Liberty was dedicated in New York.

The statue, proper name Liberty Enlightening the World, was given to the United States by France. The idea was suggested at the end of the American Civil War, and the statue is of Libertas, the Roman goddess of liberty. It sits on Liberty Island in New York Harbour.

The statue was completed piecemeal, with various pieces exhibited at fairs before the statue was completed or, for that matter, in the initial case, fully designed. It was sculpted by the French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, and funded by the French people at a number of events.

The statue was dedicated by US President Grover Cleveland, the former Governor of New York.

Image: By Elcobbola (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons (commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Statue_of_Liberty_7.jpg)