On August 31, 1876, French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi was issued U.S. Copyright Registration No. 9939-G for the “Statue of American Independence” (later known as “Liberty Enlightening the World,” or the “Statue of Liberty”), depositing a photo model and artistic rendering of how the statue was to appear against the New York skyline. Bartholdi also secured concurrent protection for the statue’s design under U.S. Design Patent No. D11023, issued February 18, 1879. From the History of Copyright Timeline at the U.S. Copyright Office.

By Giorgio Martini (Own work) [CC BY-SA 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons.