Statue of Liberty defeat by the Prussians. One of these was the "Lion of Belfort", a monumental sculpture carved in sandstone below the fortress of Belfort, which during the war had resisted a Prussian siege for over three months. The defiant lion, long and half that in height, displays an emotional quality characteristic of Romanticism, which Bartholdi would later bring to the Statue of Liberty. Bartholdi and Laboulaye considered how best to express the idea of American liberty. In early American history, two female figures were frequently used as cultural symbols of the nation. One of these symbols, the personified Columbia, was seen
The American Volunteer (statue) arguably the more famous statue, at least until Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi completed "Lady Liberty" in Paris in 1884, and it was shipped to the United States in 1885. Despite one major mishap – the upper half of the soldier fell into the Potomac River while being unloaded at Washington, D.C. – the statue was transported by canal barge to Sharpsburg, and carried on rollers to the National Cemetery. Installed on a new and taller pedestal (attributed to architect George Keller), the monument was dedicated on September 17, 1880 – the eighteenth anniversary of the battle. George Hess, the first superintendent