Statue of Liberty Congress officially renamed Bedloe's Island as Liberty Island, a change advocated by Bartholdi generations earlier. The act also mentioned the efforts to found an American Museum of Immigration on the island, which backers took as federal approval of the project, though the government was slow to grant funds for it. Nearby Ellis Island was made part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument by proclamation of President Lyndon Johnson in 1965. In 1972, the immigration museum, in the statue's base, was finally opened in a ceremony led by President Richard Nixon. The museum's backers never provided it with an endowment
Conservation-restoration of the Statue of Liberty structure of the statue was out of sight behind the mesh wire walls of the original helical stairs. It should be noted that the stairs were originally intended for workmen. Neither the architect nor the artist had envisioned that the lady would welcome visitors internally. Elevators were first installed in 1908–9. A "New York Times" article published less than a month and a half from the centennial celebration, discussed the changes within the statue as being the most spectacular. The journalist added: that "now that the walls have been removed, what is revealed is an interior that seems to combine