Originally known as "Liberty Enlightening the World," the Statue of Liberty was a gift from French people to the American people to honor the 1876 centennial celebration. French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi designed the exterior copper shell, in the form of a draped female figure carrying a torch aloft. Gustave Eiffel, designer of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, built the wrought-iron pylon inside.

American architect Richard Morris Hunt planned the stone-and-concrete pedestal. The statue was completed in Paris in 1884 and unveiled in New York Harbor on October 26, 1886. Funds for the statue were donated by the French people and those for the base by the American people. In the 1980's, funds were raised privately to restore the statue and neighboring Ellis Island in time for the centennial of the statue's dedication.