The most iconic figure in the U.S., if not the world, came from France. The 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence had to be marked with an appropriate symbol, and the United States commissioned French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi to design a figure representative of the spirit of America, that would stand on a pedestal made Stateside, with both pieces ready by the centennial celebration. Batholdi modeled the design after his mother, and received help creating the internal skeletal structure from engineer Gustave Eiffel, who at the same time was completing his eponymous tower for the 1889 World’s Fair.

On this day, June 17, in 1885, the dismantled State of Liberty arrived in New York Harbor, in 350 individual pieces packed in more than 200 cases. The statue was ready for assembly, but construction for its pedestal was lagging due to lack of funds.

It took Joseph Pulitzer, who used the bully pulpit of his The World newspaper to berate the upper classes for their unwillingness to help finance the work and the middle classes for expecting the rich to pay for everything, to get donations in amounts enough to finally cover the cost of the pedestal.