Sisters in Liberty: From Florence, Italy to New York, New York

Abstract

In February of 2020, before the world knew of COVID-19 and the difficult times that lay before us, I found myself running around New York to see the museum exhibitions that were soon to end their runs. Given my particular interest in nineteenth-century sculpture, I was drawn to Ellis Island's National Museum of Immigration for the exhibition Sisters in Liberty:From Florence, Italy to New York, New York, which had opened the previous October and was to end in April. (Due to COVID-19, the exhibition was extended until September 13, 2020). Held inside the former Dormitory Rooms above the Registry Room (Great Hall) at Ellis Island (fig. 1), the presentation focused primarily on two sculptures, the first of which was the Liberty of Poetry (1861-83), an allegorical figure created by the Italian artist Pio Fedi (1815-92). The original sculpture is placed on the tomb of the Italian poet and playwright Giovanni Battista Niccolini (1782-1861) at the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, Italy. The second sculpture at the core of this exhibition was Liberty Enlightening the World (1865-86), otherwise known as the "Statue of Liberty," by Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904), a work situated in New York harbor right outside of the exhibition. At a glance, Fedi's sculpture looks very familiar:some have suggested that it was the inspiration for Bartholdi's work. While evidence for that claim is lacking, it is true that these sister sculptures, though born to different fathers, share between them symbols associated with the allegorical mother spirit of Liberty.

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“…Flooding has caused animal waste leech pools to overflow, hastening the spread of toxicants into surrounding areas. In 2018, for example, in the days following Hurricane Florence, data released by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality stated that at least 110 hog waste lagoons had already, or were imminently poised to release waste into waterways and surrounding areas (Pierre-Louis, 2018). The Environmental Working Group’s analysis in the days following Florence was even more dire.…”