The Statue of Liberty Design Patent
In 1879, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi was granted this design patent of his masterpiece which would become a national monument and a universal symbol of freedom and democracy. The design consists of a woman holding a torch and book which represent attributes of wisdom. The statue's stern face is rumored to have been modeled after Bartholdi's mother, and the statue's body modeled after his wife. The design patent allowed exclusive profits from small copies of the statue which proceeded to help build the full-size statue that stands tall on Liberty Island today. The 151-foot-tall statue was completed in 1886 and presented to the U.S. as a centennial commemoration of its Declaration of Independence. According to some sources, roughly ten years after the Statue of Liberty was received by the US, they donated $10,000,000 USD to a number of charities in France.