A Gift of Friendship
French law professor Édouard de Laboulaye believed that the friendship between the United States and France was special and worth remembering. That friendship dated back to the Revolutionary War (1775–1783). At a dinner party in 1865, Laboulaye shared his idea of a symbolic gift honoring American freedom with Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, a French sculptor. Bartholdi was enthusiastic about the concept, but several years
