Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty ( Liberty Enlightening the World ; French: La Liberté éclairant le monde ) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York , in the United States . The copper statue, a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States, was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and its metal framework was built by Gustave Eiffel . The statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886. The Statue of Liberty is a figure of Libertas , a robed Roman liberty goddess . She holds a torch above her head with her right hand, and in her left hand carries a tabula ansata inscribed in Roman numerals with "JULY IV MDCCLXXVI" (July 4, 1776), the date of the U.S. Declaration of Independence . A broken shackle and chain lie at her feet as she walks forward, commemorating t...