It’s a stunning photograph that captures a celebration of freedom: New York Harbor packed with boats, gun smoke billowing into the air, and overhead a newly revealed sight: the Statue of Liberty.
The photo, taken in October 1886, when the United States officially inaugurated Lady Liberty, a gift from the French that took nine years to build before being deconstructed, shipped across the Atlantic, and then reassembled in four months.
It is one of a series of images appearing in a new book compiled by filmmaker Ken Burns. Our America: A Photographic History, which takes a look at the country in its most authentic form over the past 200 years. The book, which features various photographers, captures the soul of America in moments that helped shape the nation.
The collection also features the mind-blowing first self-portrait ever taken in 1839 of Robert Cornelius, an amateur chemist who worked in his father’s gas lamp manufacturing company in Philadelphia and who revolutionized exposure times in photography. It also shows the first photo of the United States Capitol building taken in 1946.
It also features America’s worst, including the historic fight between the first African-American heavyweight world champion, Jack Johnson, and undefeated champion Jim Jeffries, who is white, on Independence Day 1910 in Reno, Nevada.
The fight, dubbed the Fight of the Century, went beyond two incredible fighters going toe to toe, but the beast of racial profiling was out front. Because Johnson was black, many white Americans did not consider him fit enough to hold the heavyweight title and called upon Jeffries to come out of retirement from him in an attempt to win back the title, which he was unable to do. Johnson won in round 15.
All of the images in the book, published by Penguin Random House, are considered Burns’ favorites. The 69-year-old native New Yorker has been capturing America for four decades on film and is known for never shying away from ugliness, which is evident in his new book.
Burns is known as one of the world’s most influential documentarians and for his work on the documentary Brooklyn Bridge, which put him on the map in 1981, the film The Central Park Five, and the Muhammad Ali series, among others.
The Statue of Liberty is shrouded in a cloud of smoke after the arms salute during its inauguration in New York Harbor in October 1886. The statute was presented to the US by the French.
The New York City Subway opened in 1904, calling it a “slight improvement in transit” at the time, unaware that it would one day be recognized as one of the best systems in the world. City Hall station (pictured), which has since been permanently closed, has a loop behind it, allowing today’s 6 trains to return to the center after the last stop.
The first African-American world heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson, fought previous undefeated champion Jim Jeffries in a historic Fight of the Century bout on July 4, 1910 in Reno, Nevada (pictured). It was one of the most anticipated matches at the time, which saw Jeffries come out of retirement to take on Johnson, who he won after round 15.
Children played in the Whitman Street dump in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in 1912 in a photograph by Lewis Wickes.
A blind busker was photographed playing the violin in West Memphis, Arkansas, in 1935. Burns’ book strives to show America from every angle through his favorite photos.
A group of KKK members carry an American flag up the steps of the Capitol building in Washington DC in August 1925. More than 30,000 Klansmen marched down Pennsylvania Avenue, walking for more than three hours after being greeted by residents whites from the segregated district.
Twenty-seven African-American soldiers of the US 4th Colored Infantry Regiment line up at Fort Lincoln in Washington DC in 1863. When the Civil War broke out, it was illegal for African-Americans to unite. However, after Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1983, it became legal for them to join. Since segregation was maintained, they had their own units.
This is the first recorded photograph of the United States Capitol building. It was taken in 1946 by John Plumbe
Our America contains 251 black and white images (on the photo: book cover)
Known largely for his impressive filmmaking, Ken Burns (pictured) has captured American history for more than four decades, using imagery to largely recreate the country’s struggles and successes.
