Description:

Bartholdi Frederic

French navy celebrates Statue of Liberty drop-off

A bilingual invitation, partly printed and partly handwritten on a brown stock card, inviting a Franco-American Union officer to visit the Flore anchored in New York Harbor. In near fine condition, measuring 5" x 3.875". Some light haloes around the handwritten portions of the card.

"Rear Admiral Lacombe, Commander-in-Chief of the North Atlantic Naval Division, requests that Mr. Georges A. Glaenzer do him the honor of coming to spend the afternoon aboard the Flore June 30, 1885. A Tug Boat will be at 2-3 o'clock exactly at the landing place foot of 23rd St. N.R. R.S.V.P."

The Isere and the Flore were dispatched from France in May 1885 with precious cargo: Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty, disassembled into three hundred modeled copper sheets carefully packed in crates. The 1,000-ton steam-propelled French man-of-war ship Isere was escorted on its transatlantic crossing by the naval flagship Flore. The French ships arrived in New York Harbor after a month-long journey. The Americans warmly received the French ships with cannon salutes; ceremonial visits and sponsored events continued well into July 1885. Yet despite the festive atmosphere, delays in pedestal construction meant that even with the sculpture now in New York, it would not be inaugurated until over sixteen months later in October 1886.

Statue of Liberty sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904) studied painting, sculpture, and architecture under well-known instructors like Viollet-le-Duc in Paris. Following his service in the Franco-Prussian War, Bartholdi became increasingly interested in sculpting monumental works celebrating resistance against oppression, and Enlightenment ideals like Freedom. Bartholdi later designed the “Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World.” The fundraising phase of this process would long surpass the actual 100th anniversary of the United States. Yet once it was installed in New York in 1886, the massive 151-ft tall copper-clad sculpture of a standing woman would fundamentally change the cityscape.

Rear Admiral Henri Lacombe (1825-1903) joined the French navy at age fifteen. By forty-five, Lacombe commanded a vessel surveilling trade routes in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. He was appointed the Commander-in-Chief of the North Atlantic Naval Division in 1884. In this capacity, Lacombe accompanied the Isere on her delivery to New York.

French expatriate Georges Auguste Glaenzer (1848-1915) was a member of the French Commission to the Centennial, and Secretary of the French Committee of the Franco-American Union. This Franco-Prussian War veteran transferred his interior decorating business to the United States in 1880, where he beautified the homes of affluent New Yorkers like the Vanderbilts. He was also a friend of Bartholdi.

French fundraisers and naval officers celebrate the safe arrival of the Statue of Liberty in the spring of 1885!

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