Celebrating Icons of Freedom:

The Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and

Liberty Weekend July 1986

We've had an exciting Fourth of July, celebrating that beautiful lady, who for a hundred years now has stood watch over New York Harbor and this blessed and free land of ours. Newspaper accounts of that first celebration in 1886 tell of city streets spilling over with crowds, the harbor packed with vessels, great and small. ‘It seemed to have rained brass bands during the night,’ they said. ‘It was like a hundred Fourths of July broke loose to exalt her name, Liberty.’

President Ronald Reagan
Radio Address to the Nation on Independence Day and the Centennial of the Statue of Liberty
July 5, 1986

The Statue of Liberty

…on this date in 1886, President Grover Cleveland stood on an island in New York Harbor to dedicate a statue entitled ‘Liberty Enlightening the World.’ Ninety-nine years later, the statue is known by a more familiar affectionate name, the Statue of Liberty or simply Miss Liberty. She's cherished across America, and the torch that she bears is recognized throughout the world as a symbol of human freedom.

PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN
Remarks on Signing the Bill Designating the Centennial Year of Liberty in the United States
October 28, 1985

In 1865, French abolitionist, author, politician, and professor Édouard de Laboulaye proposed creating a monument in the United States to commemorate its independence and the friendship between the United States and France. He announced the project in September 1875, and the statue was given the name Liberty Enlightening the World. The French people would be financially responsible for the statue while the American people would fund the pedestal.

The Statue of Liberty was designed by the French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi. The French architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc was hired to design the framework. However, after his death on September 17, 1879, the French civil engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel was brought on to complete it.

On July 4, 1884, the statue was presented to the United States through the American minister to France Levi Morton in Paris. It was then dismantled and shipped to New York City in 1885. On October 28, 1886, President Grover Cleveland dedicated the Statue of Liberty on Bedloe’s Island in New York Harbor.

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Ellis Island

Many who passed through the gates at Ellis Island had little more than what they carried with them, yet they possessed a determination that with hard work and freedom, they would live a better life and their children even more so. They were captured by the American dream. And both they and their new country were the better for their efforts and their faith, because they not only came here for something but just as they came from every corner of the world, they brought something from every corner of the world to this great melting pot.

PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN
Remarks Announcing the Formation of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Centennial Commission
May 18, 1982

On January 1, 1892, Ellis Island opened as a federal immigrant processing station. From 1892 to 1954 more than 12 million people were processed.

During World War II, Ellis Island was used as a U.S. Coast Guard station, hospital for returning wounded soldiers, and a detention center for suspected enemy aliens.

On May 11, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed Proclamation 3656 adding Ellis Island to the Statue of Liberty National Monument.

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Liberty Weekend July 1986

We are the keepers of the flame of liberty. We hold it high tonight for the world to see, a beacon of hope, a light unto the nations. And so with joy and celebration and with a prayer that this lamp shall never be extinguished, I ask that you all join me in this symbolic act of faith, this lighting of Miss Liberty's torch.

PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN
Remarks on the Lighting of the Torch of the Statue of Liberty in New York, New York
July 3, 1986

On May 18, 1982, President Ronald Reagan announced the formation of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Centennial Commission to raise funds and assist in restoring the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

Four years later, in July 1986, President Reagan and Nancy Reagan participated in Liberty Weekend to celebrate the restoration of the Statue of Liberty and relighting of her torch.

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Gifts Housed in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Artifact Collection

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