The alternative picture of Lady Liberty I chose shows 18,000 men in the formation of the Statue of Liberty. The number of men alone portrays the greatness of the Statue of Liberty, and the fact that nearly 20,000 men were willing to stay in form shows how important the Statue of Liberty is to Americans. One may not truly know why Lady Liberty is important; however, it is engrained in my generation that she symbolizes freedom.
In reality, over time the Statue of Liberty has represented many things. In class we discussed that at first, the statue represented prosperity, soon she evolved to represent democracy, and now, she represents freedom. This photo encompasses the idea that the Statue of Liberty represents the people of America. At first, the people of America wanted to prosper, as time went on, people called for democracy, and at this time one we are each looking for a different kind of freedom.
The Statue of Liberty is iconic in the sense that she does not merely represent one thing, she represents whatever you see fit. In some cases she may reflect the ideas of a generation, or of the government. Yet, more or less, every American has his or her own idea of the Statue of Liberty and with each person comes a different meaning.
alternative lady liberty
February 6, 2013 by beccafeldman
Good visual!
yes, good visual indeed. The historian in me, though, wants to when? When was this done? Where? Who sponsored this event? Why did this group or person put this event on?
I could not find a date on this, but the image says it was done at Camp Dodge in Iowa.
I looked into it further and this picture was taken in 1918. The men in the picture are from the Iowa National Guard and the picture was used as an effort to sell bonds during WW1.
This is a really awesome picture. Before I read your description of the photo I thought the people were immigrants on or exiting a boat that had just arrived in America, and the picture was just edited to look like the Statue of Liberty.