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
Conservation-restoration of the Statue of Liberty the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER). According to the "New York Times", the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) would also be donating a set of three-dimensional computer drawings of the statue, rendered in the computer-aided design (CAD) program. The drawings were to aid in the future maintenance of the statue. These drawings were later given to the NPS, and were important in analyzing the wind bearing capacity of the structure within the statue. From November 7, 1982, public announcements were made by project officials that the Statue of Liberty would be completely closed to the public for as long