Statue of Liberty of War; since 1933 it has been maintained by the National Park Service. Public access to the balcony around the torch has been barred for safety since 1916. According to the National Park Service, the idea for the Statue of Liberty was first proposed by Édouard René de Laboulaye, president of the French Anti-Slavery Society and a prominent and important political thinker of his time. The project is traced to a mid-1865 conversation between de Laboulaye, a staunch abolitionist, and Frédéric Bartholdi, a sculptor. In after-dinner conversation at his home near Versailles, Laboulaye, an ardent supporter of the Union in
Statue of Liberty Forever stamp a postage stamp. In 2013, sculptor Robert S. Davidson sued the Postal Service for copyright infringement and in July 2018, a judge ordered the United States Postal Service to pay Davidson $3.5 million. Statue of Liberty Forever stamp The United States Post Office issued the Statue of Liberty Forever stamp on December 1, 2010. The stamp shows the replica of the Statue of Liberty ("Liberty Enlightening the World") located at the New York-New York Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip rather than the original Statue of Liberty in New York. The error was not noticed until March 2011.