The Statue of Liberty Wasn’t Always Green

Early on the morning of June 17, 1885, a French navy ship carrying more than 200 crates made its way through the fog and docked at Bedloe’s Island in New York Harbor after a 27-day transatlantic voyage. Inside those crates were the 350 pieces of copper-covered iron framework that would soon become the Statue of Liberty.

But when the 305-foot statue—known officially as "Liberty Enlightening the World”—was unveiled on October 28, 1886, it wasn’t the familiar green color we’d recognize today. In fact, for its first two decades, the Statue of Liberty was a different shade altogether. Here’s what to know about Lady Liberty’s color transformation.

French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi designed the Statue of Liberty—a gift from the French people to the American people. He collaborated with Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, an engineer who would soon go on to create the Eiffel Tower, on the statue’s iron pylon and secondary skeletal framework.

The outer skin of the Statue of Liberty consists of 300 copper sheets, which were roughly as thick as two pennies, says Daniel Wortel-London, visiting assistant professor of history at Bard College and the author of The Menace of Prosperity: New York City and the Struggle for Economic Development, 1865–1981. In fact, most people described the Statue of Liberty’s original color as being a shiny reddish-gold-brown, similar to a penny, he says.

So why did Bartholdi choose copper for his masterpiece? According to Wortel-London, it was likely a combination of the metal’s durability and malleability. 

“It would be durable enough to be more resistant to general wear and tear over time being exposed to the elements, and it could survive the rough trip over the Atlantic Ocean,” he says. “It would also be malleable, so that they can sculpt it in various elaborate ways.” 

Of course, it didn’t hurt that copper was less costly than materials like bronze and stone and weighed less, making it easier to transport, he adds.

Within its first 15 years in New York Harbor, the Statue of Liberty went from a bright copper color to a dull, darker brown hue. By 1903, people began noticing that Lady Liberty had started gradually developing a green patina, says Wortel-London, who specializes in the history of New York City. This color change was occurring because the copper covering the statue was exposed to the elements—like air, salt water and pollution—and began to oxidize. According to Wortel-London, there was no expectation that the statue would turn green over time. In fact, Bartholdi reportedly thought that it was going to turn a darker red.

In 1906, there were calls to repaint the statue to restore it to its original copper. Congress even appropriated $62,000 for the job. But the project was abandoned amid protests that painting the Statue of Liberty would be "sacrilege," according to a newspaper report at the time. Plus, as Wortel-London points out, if they painted the statue and wanted to keep it looking fresh, they’d have to repaint it every 25 or so years.

By 1910, the statue was half copper-colored and half blue-green. A decade later, its transformation to a fully green hue was complete—and there was no going back.

“As more and more people grew up with the statue looking green, it became less and less relevant to try to restore it to an older hue,” Wortel-London says. “This is particularly the case with the symbolism of the Statue of Liberty as an immigrant entrepôt [entry point]. I don't think people were interested in seeing it returned to a Gilded Age, pre-immigration, copper color.” 

But there is also a practical reason to leave the bluish-green patina—also known as “verdigris”—alone: It protects the metal underneath from corroding and degrading. As Wortel-London says, “It's basically adding a slight extra layer to the original material.”