Our Statue, Our History, Our Nation

The history of our nation — from the earliest settlers through the present day — is a story of ambition and resilience, a story of human ingenuity conquering the impossible.

In its new epic series “America The Story of Us,” which premieres Sunday night (April 25) at 9 p.m. EDT, HISTORY will retell the extraordinary tale of how America was invented, using CGI animation and dramatic recreations to shed light on our common history.

In conjunction with the creation of “America The Story of Us,” HISTORY turned to the Library of Congress’s collections to create a short-form video about the untold story of the Statue of Liberty (officially called “Liberty Enlightening the World”) — one of the most recognizable images associated with America’s story.  Visit History.com to find out how Lady Liberty made her way to the United States and to her permanent home in New York Harbor.

Many Library of Congress images are used, and even an early Thomas Edison film that was the first moving picture ever made of the Statue of Liberty. (mpeg link)

The Library and HISTORY two years ago entered into a series of collaborative efforts to make the Library’s collections more widely accessible, and to enhance HISTORY’s programming, website and educational materials with primary sources from the Library.

One of the coolest projects on which we worked with HISTORY was a series of several videos with curators telling the fascinating stories behind some of our most unique objects, titled “This Week’s Hidden Treasure.”