Author: Trisha Leigh Zeigenhorn / Source: did you know?
These days, there’s nothing that can’t be crowdsourced.
People are asking for contributions to help with their medical bills, unexpected funeral expenses, surgery for their pets, and even help paying their bills while their federal salaries are being withheld during a government shutdown. It might seem like a new idea because the internet makes it so easy and accessible, but get this – it’s basically the reason the Statue of Liberty stands in New York Harbor today.A bit of history, for those of us who need to brush up:
The Statue of Liberty was sculpted by French artist Auguste Bartholdi and gifted to the United States in 1881. Both countries believed the statue would be a landmark worthy of welcoming people coming to the States through New York City – she would be one of the first images they saw of their new home and would represent the liberty they’d come to claim in their own lives.
The only problem?
The statue needed a base to stand on and the city ran out of money before the $250,000 bill was paid, so construction came to a halt. Three years on, France’s generous gift still sat in wooden crates in a New York storage warehouse. Initially the city expected one or more of its wealthy inhabitants would step up to foot the…
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