#474 Made in France: The Statue of Liberty’s Forgotten Origin Story

<p>She stands in New York Harbor as America’s most recognizable symbol—but the story of the <strong>Statue of Liberty</strong> begins thousands of miles away, in the charming Alsatian city of Colmar, France.</p><p>In this special on-location episode, Tom ventures to the picturesque town where sculptor <strong>Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi</strong> was born in 1834. Walking through Colmar’s cobblestone streets and half-timbered facades, Tom sits down with Juliette Chevée, curator of <a href="https://www.visit.alsace/en/235016023-bartholdi-museum/">the Musée Bartholdi</a>, to uncover the French side of this iconic American monument.</p><p>Who was Bartholdi? What did the statue originally mean to the French republicans who conceived it at an 1865 dinner party? How did a rejected Egyptian lighthouse design become the template for Liberty’s form?</p><p>And how did two Frenchmen—Bartholdi and the historian Édouard de Laboulaye—manage to convince a foreign country to accept a colossal structure ...