When Did the Statue of Liberty Turn Green?

by Ashton, Jean

• ISBN13: 9780231147422
• ISBN10: 0231147422
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-10-30
• Publisher: Columbia Univ Pr

Summary

For years the New-York Historical Society has collected the questions put to them by curious New Yorkers and visitors. Who was the first woman to run for Mayor of New York? Why are beavers featured on the city's official seal? Is it true that a nineteenth-century New Yorker built a house out of spite? Questions involve people, places, buildings, monuments, rumors, and urban myths. They concern sports, food, transportation, the arts, Central Park, politics, nature, and tourism, among many other subjects, attesting to the infinite varieties of story within the most intriguing metropolis in the world.Now with this book, the history of New York takes on a whole new, fascinating dimension. Choosing 102 of their most popular and compelling queries, the staff at the New-York Historical Library has assembled an endlessly entertaining collection of hard-to-find answers and unforgettable profiles, preserving a snapshot of New York's secret history for future generations to enjoy. Making use of their library's extensive collections, these librarians provide answers to the questions already listed above as well as many other inquiries. When was the first book printed in New York? Is it true that residents of ghetto housing once presented rats to government housing officials? Were premature babies displayed in Coney Island? Who were the Collyer brothers, and why were they famous? For readers who love trivia, urban history, strange tales, and, of course, New York, this book will delight with its rich, informative, and surprising stories.

Excerpts

When did the Statue of Liberty turn green?

For more than twenty years, the Statue of Liberty, originally known as "Liberty Enlightening the World," was dark brown, only changing to its familiar verdant hue close to the time of America's entry into the First World War. By the early 1920s, the entire monument turned green. The dark color of the statue in the early years gives quite accidental plausibility to proponents of a theory that the model for the work was black and that she was donated to the United States to celebrate the end of American slavery. August Bartholdi, however, claimed he gave the sculpture the stern features of his mother.