The Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building loom large in the American imagination, symbolizing the conflicting ideas of liberty and empire; their meanings and characters have shifted over time as the American ethos has shifted. Joining me in this episode is writer, historian, and freelance editor, Dr. Vaneesa Cook (https://www.scholarscope.net/) author of Empire and Liberty: The Tied Histories of Two American Landmarks (https://bookshop.org/a/34046/9780807019689)
Our theme song is “Frogs Legs Rag (https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html),” composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode audio is “Hail to the spirit of liberty (https://www.loc.gov/item/jukebox-646614/),” composed by John Philip Sousa and performed by Prince’s Orchestra in New York City on January 11, 1912; the audio is in the public domain and is available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is a photograph of NASA’s prototype space shuttle Enterprise, mounted atop a NASA 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft 905 (https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/shuttle-enterprise-sca-2/) during a flyover of New York City on Friday, April 27, 2012; the photographer was Bill Ingalls, and the government image is in the public domain.
Additional Sources:
“Body of Iron, Soul of Fire: The Statue of Liberty (https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2024/10/14/body-of-iron-soul-of-fire-the-statue-of-liberty/),” by Jessie Kratz, National Archive Pieces of History, October 14, 2024.
“Liberty Island Chronology (https://www.nps.gov/stli/learn/historyculture/liberty-island-a-chronology.htm),” Statue of Liberty, National Park Service.
“Letter from Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi (1834–1904) to his mother, June 24, 1871 (https://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/galleries/new-york-city/item/5585),” Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi Papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library.
“Édouard Laboulaye and the Statue of Liberty: Forging the Democratic Experience (https://doi.org/10.4000/lettre-cdf.782),” by Stephen W. Sawyer, La lettre du Collège de France, 4, 2008-2009.
“Gov. Alfred Emanuel Smith (https://www.nga.org/governor/alfred-emanuel-smith/),” National Governors Association.
“Oral history interviews with John J. Raskob family (https://digital.hagley.org/2004208),” Hagley Digital Archives.
“John J. Raskob Dies of a Heart Attack (https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1950/10/16/91115120.html?pageNumber=27),” New York Times, October 16, 1950.
“How the Empire State Building Was Built in Record Time (https://www.history.com/articles/empire-state-building-construction),” by Tim Ott, History.com, Originally published October 10, 2024 and updated November 03, 2025.
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