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
Statue of John of Nepomuk, Charles Bridge Statue of John of Nepomuk, Charles Bridge The statue of John of Nepomuk is an outdoor sculpture, installed in 1683 on the north side of the Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic. It was the first of the many Baroque images of saints to be installed on the bridge. The bronze statue is based on a clay model made in 1681 by Matthias Rauchmiller. The sculptor Jan Brokoff created a large wooden sculpture based on Rauchmiller's model, which was then cast in bronze in Nuremberg. Rauchmiller's clay model is now in the collection of the National Gallery of Prague. Brokoff's