Statue of Liberty 1898

Sept 3, 1898. Edison Manufacturing Co. Bedloe’s Island in New York’s harbor bares Frederic Auguste Bartholdi’s ’Liberty Enlightening the World’ (the Statue of Liberty) which was only 12 years old at the time of this film. This is the first view immigrants had of the New World as the ships would enter the upper bay before docking at Ellis Island. After lifetimes of living in nineteenth century labor, poverty and strife, and after weeks of traveling on the ocean, often in tight conditions, the symbolic and emotional sight of this entry into America must have been incredible. ’’ODE TO GREATER NEW YORK“ Hail thee, city, born today / Commercial monarch by the sea, / Whose throne is by the Hudson’s way, / ’Mid thousands’ homesteads join’d to thee. / On terrace race, plain and mountainside, / Where countless millions shall abide. / Let the bells in triumph ring, / Let the thundering cannon say, / Let a million voices sing, /