The Story behind the Crowd decision to enlighten the world
The “Liberty Enlightening the World” universally known as the Statue of Liberty was designed and built by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi and funded by the people of France and the People of New York. What very few of us know that this project would have not been accomplished if it wasn’t for Joseph Pulitzer’s help and stroke of genius.
Joseph Pulitzer advocated the sacred role of the free press in a democracy. He was the “voice of the people” and the people were his voice. In 1882, when all the attempts to fund the construction of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty failed, Joseph Pulitzer announced a drive to raise $100.000 what amounts to $2.3 million in today’s dollars. He pledged to print the name of every single contributor in the New York World newspaper, no matter how small the sum donated.
Joseph Pulitzer stroke of genius saved Bartholdi’s project and once again brought forth the “voice of the people” through the creation of the world’s early form of “Reward based Crowdfunding”. The perks were as follows in the New York World Newspaper:
“A young girl alone in the world” donated “60 cents, the result of self-denial.”
One donor gave “five cents as a poor office boy’s mite toward the Pedestal Fund.”
A group of children sent a dollar as “the money we saved to go to the circus with.”
Another dollar was given by a “lonely and very aged woman.”
Residents of a home for alcoholics in New York’s rival city of Brooklyn—the cities would not merge until 1898—donated $15; other drinkers helped out through donation boxes in bars and saloons.
A kindergarten class in Davenport, Iowa, mailed the World a gift of $1.35.
Shortly after, crowd donations flooded in, and Bartholdi and the committee restarted their work on the pedestal.
Joseph Pulitzer’s versatility in journalism as well as in democracy and finance is similar to today’s versatility and advancement of telecommunication and the internet. He helped in democratizing knowledge, decision making, and finance in the same way Crowdsourcing, Crowdvoting, and Crowdfunding are democratizing our world today. The “New York World” back then, served as today’s KICKSTARTER and INDIEGOGO. The Statue of Liberty was the first thrill of the New World’s liberty and today’s thrills of liberty include Crowdfunded Eyeglasses and Sunglasses like, Vue with $2,215,583 pledged, Zungle Panther with $1,947,035 pledged, AVALON with 516,593 Euros pledged, and Barner with 398,173 Euros pledged.