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Statue of Liberty: Only Two Women Allowed — October 28, 1886 #Shorts

Oct 28, 2026

Pack: 02 - Statue of Liberty Only Two Women Allowed — October 28, 1886

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On October 28, 1886, the Statue of Liberty was unveiled in New York Harbor, and only two women were invited onto the island to see it. Archival photo and engravings from the day.

• The dedication on Bedloe's Island was attended by 2,000–2,500 men; fog and rain cut visibility to under a quarter of a mile, and about 300 vessels took part in the water parade (National Park Service, Liberty Island Chronology).
• Only two women had been invited to the statue that day (Smithsonian Magazine, 2019).
• The New York State Woman Suffrage Association, unable to get tickets as "unaccompanied" women, chartered a boat and watched from the water (NPS); the boat took a place in line between two warships, and Lillie Devereux Blake and Matilda Joslyn Gage spoke aboard (History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, 1902).
• Their resolution: "In erecting a Statue of Liberty embodied as a woman in a land where no woman has political liberty, men have shown a delightful inconsistency which excites the wonder and admiration of the opposite sex." Blake's placard read "American women have no liberty" (Smithsonian Magazine).
• The official programme set the unveiling of the face for the end of Senator William M. Evarts's address; Bartholdi released the French flag early, and guns, whistles and applause followed. President Cleveland accepted the statue for the United States (1886 programme; NPS). Women gained the vote nationwide with the 19th Amendment, ratified August 18, 1920 (National Archives).

Would you have been on the island, or on the boat?

Sources

• National Park Service, Liberty Island Chronology
• National Park Service, Matilda Joslyn Gage
• Smithsonian Magazine, "The Americans Who Saw Lady Liberty as a False Idol of Broken Promises" (2019)
• History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4 (1902), New York chapter
• The Statue of Liberty: its conception, its construction, its inauguration (New York, 1886), Programme of Exercises
• Inauguration of the Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World (official account issued by the American Committee, 1887)
• National Archives, 19th Amendment

Images

• "Liberty Enlightening the World" – Inauguration of the Bartholdi Statue, Harbor of New York – Military and naval salute, the President's arrival at Liberty Island (photograph from the steamer Patrol, October 28, 1886), H. O'Neil, public domain, Library of Congress LC-DIG-ds-04491
• The great Bartholdi statue, liberty enlightening the world (chromolithograph, 1885), Currier & Ives, public domain
• Tête de la statue colossale de la Liberté, dans le parc du Champ-de-Mars (engraving, 1878), Jules Després / A. Hauger, Brown University Library, public domain
• Re-constructing the statue on Bedloe's Island (wood engraving, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, October 9, 1886), Library of Congress LC-USZ62-49448, public domain
• Unveiling The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World (oil painting, 1886), Edward Moran, Museum of the City of New York, public domain