Number 8: It Was One Of History’s First Crowdfunding Campaigns

First French sculptor Frederic Auguste Abarth Pauli raised funds in his country to build a statue it wasn’t actually sponsored by the local government when it was finished the sculptor offered it as a gift to the US on one condition they would build a pedestal for the federal government didn’t like the idea so the status of the statue was unclear for a few years then American newspaper magnate Joseph Pulitzer stepped in he basically started one of the first massive crowdfunding campaigns in history promising every contributor an honorary shout-out in his newspapers even though 80% of the donations were small ones from middle-class citizens Pulitzer managed to collect the necessary amount from over 120 thousand donors by the way the famous sonnet the new Colossus which can still be found on a bronze plaque inside the statue was also part of the fundraising campaign.