The History Matters Campaign is a project of the Knowledge Matters Campaign. American history is replete with iconic images that tell powerful stories. From paintings like Washington crossing the Delaware and the signing of the Declaration of Independence to photographs like Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother and newsreel from Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech, images shape memories and serve as common symbols in our American story. They remind us that history includes accomplishments and struggles and depicts our common cause. Per aspera, ad astra.
E.D. Hirsch’s research and advocacy has helped us to understand how background knowledge, which allows us to instantly recognize why a picture is iconic, underpins literacy. Recent attention to the “science of reading” is a long overdue recognition of his work.
The “Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World” is arguably among America’s most iconic images. Instantly recognizable, she embodies hope, freedom, and an end to oppression. She also inspires us–which is why the Statue of Liberty is the symbol of our new History Matters Campaign at the Knowledge Matters Campaign.
Lady Liberty reminds us of the importance of shared historical knowledge to civics. And how literacy—the ultimate goal of our work—is advanced when we share an understanding of cultural references and touchstones. Our founders reflected this aspiration for building a common understanding in our motto, E pluribus unum.
After the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Benjamin Franklin was asked what form of government the delegates had selected. His reply, “a republic, if you can keep it,” underscores that an engaged and educated citizenry is essential to maintain liberty.
With our expanded focus on history, we seek to “find the good and praise it,” as we have with our Knowledge Matters School Tour and Curriculum Directory. Content-rich curricula that build a deep, shared base of history, civics, and geography and that capitalize on what we’ve learned about strong literacy instruction are within our grasp.
To that end, let me suggest a few stories that could be the start of any student’s journey to appreciating the significance of the history behind Lady Liberty:
- The statue was a gift from France in the wake of the American Civil War. French abolitionist Édouard de Laboulaye sought to symbolize the liberties for which the Civil War was fought, which were denied to French citizens. He also wanted to remember our alliance during the Revolution.
- An American committee started to raise funds for the statue’s pedestal, but by 1884 they had failed. An 1886 editorial in the New York World newspaper launched a crowd-funding effort to finish the pedestal. In just six months, more than 125,000 people contributed, generally in amounts of less than a dollar. The newspaper’s publisher, Joseph Pulitzer, was an immigrant who fought in the Civil War.
- At the statue’s foot, the sculptor carved a broken chain and shackle in hopes that the oppression of slavery would end with the Civil War. It would be another 100 years, with more blood spilled, before key protections and voting rights for Black Americans were the law of the land. American ideals have often proven difficult to realize in full.
- While the statue was intended to honor the end of slavery, amid our national ambivalence about integration it took on a second meaning: welcoming immigrants to America. In “The New Colossus,” the poem that appears on its base, Emma Lazarus wrote “From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome” to those who she called “your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses …, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.” Lazarus’s ancestors were Jewish refugees who fled from Brazil to Manhattan in 1654.
- Until 1902, the torch in Lady Liberty’s hand was a navigational beacon for New York Harbor. In a sheltered location at the mouth of the Hudson River, New York became a wealthy merchant capital. Starting in the 1950s, changing technology meant fewer immigrants and goods were shipped into Manhattan. Still, nearly four million people visit the statue every year and every day the harbor is busy with ferries, cruise ships, and pleasure boats.
- The seven spikes in the statue’s crown represent the seven continents and seven seas and symbolize universal liberty. At times, the U.S. has assumed a calling to advance democracy globally, while at other times, we have followed George Washington’s advice to “steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.” Understanding the context for both is what makes history so fascinating to students of all ages.
As with other iconic American images, stories about the Statue of Liberty contain complexity and contradiction. Properly presented, they can help us reflect on our history, so long as we have the knowledge to do so. The Knowledge Matters Campaign recognizes that kids need a factual foundation if they are to think critically. Incorporating stories like these into early grades lessons takes advantage of the stickiness of narrative and create opportunities to build students’ knowledge and literacy skills. Both are essential if today’s students are to carry on the work of perfecting our imperfect union.
Using her lamp, lit beside the golden door, the History Matters Campaign could have no better guide than Lady Liberty.
Matthew Levey has worked as a diplomat and strategy consultant. In 2013, he founded a charter elementary school in Brooklyn. His essays on education have been published widely. Matthew helps lead StandardsWork’s History Matters Campaign.