Statue of Liberty replica, Chimborazo Park, Richmond, VA

What is: Chimborazo Park, Richmond, VA.  Statue of Liberty replica (this one #136 of about 200) dedicated in Chimborazo Park on February 11, 1951. A gift to the city by the Boy Scouts of Robert E. Lee Council in 1951.  Worth noting this is the same site of the Confederate States military hospital, which was the largest hospital in human history, receiving 17,000 wounded and serving more than 76,000 patients.

What was: Inscription at the base: “With the faith and courage of their forefathers who made possible the freedom of these United States.  The Boy Scouts of America dedicated this copy of the statue of Liberty as a pledge of everlasting fidelity and loyalty.  40^th Anniversary Crusade to strengthen the arm of Liberty, 1950.”

Between 1949 and 1952, approximately two hundred 100-inch (2.5 m) replicas of the statue, made of stamped copper, were purchased by Boy Scout troops and donated in 39 states in the U.S. and several of its possessions and territories. The project was the brainchild of Kansas City businessman, J.P. Whitaker, who was then Scout Commissioner of the Kansas City Area Council.

The copper statues were manufactured by Friedley-Voshardt Co. (Chicago, Illinois) and purchased through the Kansas City Boy Scout office. The statues are approximately 8+1⁄2 feet (2.6 m) tall without the base, constructed of sheet copper, weigh 290 pounds (130 kg), and originally cost US$350 (equivalent to about $3,900 in 2021) plus freight. The mass-produced statues are not meticulously accurate, and a conservator noted that “her face isn’t as mature as the real Liberty. It’s rounder and more like a little girl’s.” Many of these statues have been lost or destroyed, but preservationists have been able to account for about 100 of them (Source: Wikipedia)