Many Americans Viewed New York Harbor's Lady Liberty as a False Idol of Broken Promises

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Top image: THIS MAP APPEARED IN THE MAGAZINE PUCK DURING THE EMPIRE STATE CAMPAIGN, A HARD-FOUGHT REFERENDUM ON A SUFFRAGE AMENDMENT TO THE NEW YORK STATE CONSTITUTION—THE REFERENDUM FAILED IN 1915. Lower image: ‘Madre Luz’ by Pablo Machioli, installed in Baltimore at the site of a Confederate monument removed after Charlottesville. It was destroyed. via

Many Americans Viewed New York Harbor's Lady Liberty as a False Idol of Broken Promises

By Angela Serratore. First published on Smithsonian.com as ‘The Americans Who Saw Lady Liberty as a False Idol of Broken Promises’.

It was a crisp, clear fall day in New York City, and like many others, Lillie Devereaux Blake was eager to see the great French statue, donated by that country’s government to the United States as a token of friendship and a monument to liberty, finally unveiled. President Grover Cleveland was on Bedloe’s Island (since renamed Liberty Island), standing at the base of the statue, ready to give a speech. Designed in France, the statue had been shipped to New York in the spring of 1885, and now, in October 1886, it was finally assembled atop its pedestal.

“Presently the veil was withdrawn from her beautiful calm face,” wrote Blake of the day’s events, “and the air was rent with salvos of artillery fired to hail the new goddess; the earth and the sea trembled with the mighty concussions, and steam-whistles mingled their shrill shrieks with the shouts of the multitude—all this done by men in honor of a woman.”

Blake wasn’t watching from the island itself, though—in fact, only two women had been invited to the statue that day. Blake and other members of the New York State Women’s Suffrage Association, at that point New York’s leading women’s suffrage organization, had chartered their own boat in protest of the exclusion of women not just from the statue’s unveiling, but from the idea of liberty itself.

Blake’s protest is one of several highlighted at the new Statue of Liberty Museum, which opened earlier this month on Liberty Island. While the statue’s pedestal did at one point hold a small museum, the new space’s increased square footage allowed historians and exhibit designers to expand the story of Lady Liberty, her champions and her dissenters.

Eye | The Clooneys | Amal Clooney Defends Ex Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed | 10 Luxury Maldives Resorts | George Clooney Stylist

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George Clooney Stylist

Like Kanye West taking a keen interest in his wife Kim Khardashian’s style, George Clooney is deeply involved in his wife Amal Clooney’s fashion choices, reports US Weekly and picked up by Elle.com.

Clooney is “very involved in selecting her looks … ‘He’ll watch her try on clothes and will say, ‘I like that. You should get it,’ or ‘No, not that,’” a source close to the actor told the mag.

 “He Clooney) installed a runway, floor-to-ceiling mirrors, and a crazy light system in their closet,” the source continued.”Amal can see every single angle and tell if her outfit is see-through!”

Amal Clooney Human Rights Lawyer

Amal Clooney arrived at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washing, DC on Thursday to press her case on behalf of imprisoned former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed. Clooney appeared earlier in the day at the National Press Club. In a statement, the NPC said that it’s legal team is preparing to “make public a filing to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, urging it to find that Nasheed is being held in violation of international law.”

Clooney released an in-depth op ed in The Guardian this week.

Release Mohamed Nasheed — an innocent man and the Maldives’ great hope Amal Clooney for The Guardian

It may be famous for the pristine holiday beaches of its Indian Ocean coastline but the Maldives has taken a dark authoritarian turn. In 2008, the island nation became a democracy after Mohamed Nasheed was sworn in as president after the country’s first-ever free and fair elections. A charismatic leader, Nasheed introduced liberalising reforms at home, while calling for global action against climate change in an attempt to combat the rising sea levels that threaten to inundate the low-lying nation. His remarkable story is chronicled in the acclaimed documentary The Island President.

Seven years later, however, Nasheed is in prison, having been sentenced to 13 years imprisonment for the crime of “terrorism” following a politically motivated show trial.

10 Best Luxury Resorts in the Maldives Touropia

Naladhu Resort Maldives

Perhaps the ultimate luxury destination,the Maldives has become a synonym for paradise whether it is for honeymooners, sun worshipers or scuba divers. Aside from the capital Male, there are no hotels in the Maldives, only resorts. Most resorts take up their own island, so the ratio of beach to guests must be one of the best in the world, writes Touropia

George Clooney Bartender

With Cinco de Mayo coming on May 5, George Clooney and close buddy Rande Gerber share an  list of six cocktails to celebrate the Mexican army’s unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.

“We meet at Café Habana Malibu and eat and drink Casamigos margaritas,” Clooney and Gerber said of their plans with equally famous wives Amal Clooney and Cindy Crawford. Note that George and Rande own the Casamigos tequila brand with their friend Michael Meldman.

The duo shares five variations on the margarita and one signature cocktial to Vogue.com readers. We share two.

Strawberry Basil Margarita

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Eye | John Galliano Returns At Teatime London | Hollywood Stands For Charlie | Adidas Originals Ad Campaign

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Helen Mirren shows support for free speech, holding Je Suis Charlie sign at January 11 Golden Globe awards in Hollywood.Adidas Originals | #OriginalSuperstar

Some of the best, memorable ad campaigns are launched by athletic brands, and the new Adidas Originals campaign hits a real high note inspite of a strong bass line. In the age of selfiedom — now promoted in more not memorable Spring 2015 campaigns than we can count — Adidas has a values-driven message: stop being obsessed with your own fame.

You can live through the lives of celebrities, says Adidas, even if you are Rebecca Harrington writing about her adventures in celebrity dieting in I’ll Have What She’s Having, out this week from Vintage. New York Magazine features Harrington’s ‘I Tried Taylor Swift’s Diet and It Was A Joy’.

John Galliano Returns to Runway Today

John Galliano with model Cara Delevingne at a London party December 2014.Former Dior Creative Director and Designer John Galliano will return to the fashion world today, as he debut’s French Label Maison Martin Margiela Artisanal collection at London’s menswear show. WWD reports that Lanvin’s Alber Elbaz, Burberry’s Christopher Bailey and milliner Stephen Jones are expected to attend the event.

Jones says that the event will occur at 4:30 pn London time at a “warehouse space in Westminster”.” It’s ‘Teatime’,” explained Margiela spokeswoman Jade Guishard, “which is very English.”

Perfect Timing?

If Guishard is right and timing is everything in life, Galliano might wish for a different day to showcase his work. The impetuous, alcoholic design talent, who has received major support from Vogue’s Anna Wintour and supermodel Kate Moss in his recovery, faced a deadly public relations backlash over his antisemetic, drunken February 2011 rant at the La Perle cafe in the Marais.

Unfortunately, the Marais is also the location of Paris’ terrorist attack at a kosher supermarket, with four dead bodies now headed for Israel, rather than burial in France. Anti-Semetic attacks and incidents in France more than doubled during 2014, says the French Ministry of Interior. About 7,000 French Jews moved to Israel from France in 2014 up from 3,300 in 2013. It’s believed that 15,000 French Jews will migrate to Israel this year, writes Middle East Eye.

Note that anti-Muslim attacks have also increased in France and throughout Europe over the same period.

Whether current events will impact the viability of Galliano’s return to fashion design will be decided after the first collections are shown. Galliano may no longer be relevant as a designer, writes The Guardian. Certainly his theatrical, over-the-top designs have no place at Martin Margiela. After phase one’s focus on the clothes, European retailers will decide whether or not to embrace again fashion’s bad boy now enjoying a revitalized, sober life based on values that resonate — or so he says.

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