Smoking Liberty

The Statue of Liberty was dedicated on October 28, 1886, on Bedloe's Island, which Congress renamed Liberty Island in 1956. Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi designed her, Gustave Eiffel built the iron framework inside, and a fund drive started by Joseph Pulitzer's newspaper, the New York World, paid for the pedestal.

Her worst day came thirty years later. At about 2:08 on the morning of July 30, 1916, more than two million pounds of munitions waiting to be shipped overseas exploded at Black Tom Island, across the harbor in New Jersey. The blast, later ruled an act of sabotage, sent shrapnel into the statue and damaged the torch-bearing arm. She was closed for ten days. The narrow ascent to the torch was shut for safety and has stayed shut.

The picture keeps the smoke. The statue rises out of deep navy and pale blue, torch lifted at upper left with a small point of red at the flame, the crown and face clear and the tablet faint. Below the waist the figure thins into curling gray smoke, with ribbons of red fire spilling across the lower left.