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
Replicas of the Statue of Liberty the United States Declaration of Independence) like the New York statue, and "XIV JUILLET 1789" (July 14, 1789: the storming of the Bastille) associated with an equal sign. This statue is shown in the film "" as a historic location. The tall original plaster maquette finished in 1878 by Auguste Bartholdi that was used to make the statue in New York is in the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris. This original plaster was bequeathed by the artist's widow in 1907, together with part of the artist's estate. On the square outside the Musée des Arts et Métierss entrance