Statue of Liberty of War; since 1933 it has been maintained by the National Park Service. Public access to the balcony around the torch has been barred for safety since 1916. According to the National Park Service, the idea for the Statue of Liberty was first proposed by Édouard René de Laboulaye, president of the French Anti-Slavery Society and a prominent and important political thinker of his time. The project is traced to a mid-1865 conversation between de Laboulaye, a staunch abolitionist, and Frédéric Bartholdi, a sculptor. In after-dinner conversation at his home near Versailles, Laboulaye, an ardent supporter of the Union in
Conservation-restoration of the Statue of Liberty Before being replaced, the bar was photographed; the image is in the June 1986 issue of "Smithsonian" magazine. The torch was removed from the statue on July 4, 1984. An article in "The New York Times" from October 8, 1984, stated that the new torch is to be completed in the same manner that the old torch was made in 14 months by ten craftsmen from Les metalliers Champenois based in Reims, and that a workshop at the statue's base on Liberty Island had been made accessible to the public that month. Within the copper body of the statue is