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Scouts are like squirrels,

they forget where they bury things. :)

Schenectady, NY

 "A Statue of Liberty replica that was erected in Liberty Park by the Boys Scouts in 1950 is looking for a new home. Schenectady was one of six locations in New York that had enough interested and enthusiastic Boys Scouts to order a statue.

Due to construction in that area of State Street, across from the former YMCA, the replica has been put in the city garage on Foster Avenue for safekeeping. But Mayor Gary R. McCarthy expects it to have a new home soon....

The replica is about 8 1/2 feet tall without its base. It is made of sheet copper and weighs about 290 pounds. The cost of the replica was about $350 at the time it was installed.

When construction workers moved the statue out of Liberty Park in August, they unearthed a time capsule that was buried by the Boy Scouts when the replica was installed.

"It was supposed to be opened in 2000, but it never was," said Joe Berlant, the retired deputy director for development for the city of Schenectady and a former Boy Scout leader. "The Schenectady Council of the Boy Scouts dissolved around 1991 or '92, so the folks immediately involved in the statue and the time capsule had lost track of this."

There were around 200 Boy Scout groups around the country that participated in a program in 1950 to erect Statue of Liberty replicas in their communities. The Schenectady group also put the time capsule — a small box made of sheet copper — under the base of the replica. When officials opened it, the only item inside was ..."

more details and photos at source link

https://dailygazette.com/article/2017/12/13/statue-of-liberty-replica-will-find-a-new-home

Edited by RememberSchiff
Topic name change
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The program was called "Strengthen the Arm of Liberty" program and kicked off in 1949. I believe it was in response to a growing Cold War threat.

 You can find brass neckerchief slides on eBay with the Statue of Liberty and the same tagline, Strengthen the Arm of Liberty.  The were available with the Cub and BS logos. Wikipedia and Facebook have pages dedicate to the statues.  1949 newspaper clippings from my father's council-wide ECOH told off a huge and impressive presentation for this program, as part this big event.*

The scouts were a logical vehicle for such a patriotic campaign with their history civil defense preparation, war bond sales, and positive public image.

*1700 in attendance

Edited by WRW_57
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  • RememberSchiff changed the title to Strengthen the Arm of Liberty
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The “Strengthen the Arm of Liberty” campaign coincided with the 40th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America in 1949. At that time, J.P. “Jack” Whitaker was president of his automobile battery cable company, as well as commissioner of the Scouts’ Kansas City Area Council and was considering the best way both to mark the BSA’s anniversary and to demonstrate the better values of the nation.

...Whitaker chose to seed the land with replicas of the Statue of Liberty. The Friedley-Voshardt Co. of Chicago, a manufacturer of metal ceiling sheathing, supplied the 290 pounds of sheet copper statue parts. It also created a method for assembling the 42 sheets of stamped copper around interior braces to support the facsimiles of Frederic Auguste Bartholdi’s “Liberty Enlightening the World,” aka the Statue of Liberty. The copper was about the thickness of a half-dollar.

The statues were installed from 1949 to 1952 in 39 states, as well as in several U.S. possessions and territories.

George P. Freeman, who was executive director of the Robert E. Lee Boy Scouts Council (VA) in 1951, recalled for a 1978 newspaper article that the downtown clothier Berry-Burk underwrote the approximately $1,000 cost of shipping the $350 Liberty kit to Richmond, VA. The cost of the packaged materials was defrayed by a penny donated by every member of the Richmond Scouts. 

The kit included instructions for constructing a scaled-down version of the New York City pedestal and the 11-pointed island base, which was the responsibility of the Scouts. Richmond’s Liberty stands on a base made of city street paving stones. ..

More at source, including photos and the maintenance efforts over the years by local citizens.

https://richmondmagazine.com/news/richmond-history/chimborazo-park-statue-of-liberty/

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"" You can find brass neckerchief slides on eBay with the Statue of Liberty and the same tagline, Strengthen the Arm of Liberty.  The were available with the Cub and BS logos. ""

I have one in my collection, given to me by a (much) older friend. 

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On 12/15/2017 at 2:36 PM, RememberSchiff said:

Scouts are like squirrels,

they forget where they bury things. :)

Schenectady, NY

"Chris Mehaffey, CEO and SE of the Mid-America Council of the Boy Scouts of America, said he was unaware the statue still existed."

Omaha, NE

"Omaha’s Little Sister of Liberty was among at least 15 placed in Nebraska to commemorate the 175th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Boy Scouts of America. Omaha’s statue stood in Turner Park for several decades, during which it received some rough treatment. For the past 30 years, it’s been tucked away in storage in sculptor John Lajba’s downtown Omaha studio. "

To put Omaha’s Little Liberty back in place would take work. The arm with the torch is missing, he said, as is her crown, and her right leg is crushed. “It’s important that she be restored using the original methods used to create her.” ...

Much more history including photo at source:

https://flatwaterfreepress.org/mini-statues-of-liberty-brought-patriotism-to-nebraska-towns-then-omahas-disappeared/

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