Topics:  Gendered Icons

In keeping with her Roman and neoclassical roots, nineteenth-century Liberty is almost always represented as a young woman (one of the few male representations is of the "Spirit of Liberty," not of Liberty itself). Even though female citizens of democratic republics could not vote and had limited civic rights, the gender of Liberty seemed firmly fixed as female. Ironically, throughout the nineteenth century, the female gender was understood by most people of both genders as innately disqualifying for full political equality. The figure's partial nudity recalls Roman figures, but also suggests her invulnerability; even in martial contexts, it is plain that she can not be threatened by weapons, though she can wield them. The icon of Liberty becomes more humanized from its origin as a "grim Roman goddess" by the end of the eighteenth century, and this softer, more realistic Liberty is common in nineteenth-century representations. In the United States, Liberty coinage, carried in the pockets of millions of Americans from the late 1790s through the 1830s, was modeled on a real woman, a society beauty, intellectual, and feminist named Anne Willing Bingham (1764-1801). The American representations of Liberty kept the figure up-to-date with modern fashion; she wore the diaphanous gowns with empire waists made famous by the Empress Josephine in the 1810s, but by the first decade of the twentieth century could be found outfitted as a Gibson girl. Liberty also changed throughout the century by merging with national female symbols, such as Columbia (U.S.), Britannia (Great Britain), and Marianne (France). She found competition from more masculine figures for national identity, such as the newly-created Brother Jonathon and Uncle Sam in the United States, Hercules in France, and John Bull in Great Britain.