Statue of Liberty Museum
New York, NY • 2019
Celebrating America’s
symbol of liberty
The new museum gives the 4.3 million annual visitors to the Statue of Liberty the opportunity to learn about and honor the Statue’s history, influence, and legacy in the world.
The exhibits provoke insight, stir emotions, and inspire ideas about the Statue of Liberty and all she represents.
At the new Statue of Liberty Museum, with experience and exhibit design by ESI Design, visitors have the opportunity to explore the history and grandeur of this colossal figure and consider the role of liberty in their world today. Throughout the museum, ESI Design used interactive media in new and unexpected ways to tell the important cultural story of Liberty and bring the Statue’s history to life. The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation built the museum to accommodate the nearly 4 million overflow visitors to Liberty Island every year who cannot access the Statue itself.
The museum journey begins in the Immersive Theater with a sweeping film that takes visitors on a cinematic flythrough inside the monument and provides an overview of the story of the Statue, from its origins to present day. The Engagement Gallery allows visitors to delve into stories about the Statue’s construction, history, and global impact through artifacts, media, and interactive experiences.
The museum’s emotional culmination is the Inspiration Gallery, where visitors consider their own roles in liberty’s future by adding their self-portrait and collage of inspirational images to the ever-growing Becoming Liberty digital mural. And in a striking glass gallery overlooking the Flagpole Plaza visitors see the Statue's original historic torch up close, with the Statue of Liberty herself in the distance, set against a stunning backdrop of the New York skyline.
The new 26,000-square-foot Statue of Liberty Museum was designed by architecture firm FXCollaborative. The design enhances the experience of Liberty Island for all visitors by merging building and landscape. Planted with native vegetation, the building's steps, terraces, and roof are “lifted” above the main pedestrian mall, carrying visitors onto the site and creating new environments for viewing, resting, and picnicking. Using materials that link the future of the island with its past, the asymmetrical design of the building embraces its dramatic setting and changes form as visitors move in, on, and around it, reinforcing the idea of liberty as a diverse and pluralistic concept.
Read the Statue of Liberty Museum press release.
Donate to the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation before your visit, and find your name in the museum’s digital donor directory.
"I am proud of Ed [Schlossberg] and all of the folks at ESI Design who took up the difficult task of writing and communicating our shared story... They have done a very fine job of it. The space is beautiful, thought provoking, and welcoming to all of our fellow citizens—of our country and of our world."