June 17 in American History: The Statue of Liberty Arrives in New York Harbor

On June 17, 1885, the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York Harbor aboard the French ship Isère. Designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the statue was created to honor the friendship between France and America and to celebrate the ideals of liberty and democratic government. The statue did not arrive standing tall as Americans know it today. It had been disassembled into 350 individual pieces and packed into 214 crates for its journey across the Atlantic Ocean.