Here, on the Semiquincentennial of America, I found it fitting to write about Ken Burns, the filmmaker known for his documentary films and television series, many of which chronicle United States history and culture.
Ken Burns was born Kenneth Lauren Burns on July 29, 1953, in Brooklyn, New York, into a family that experienced both cultural richness and early tragedy, as his mother, Lyla Smith Burns, died of cancer when he was just eleven years old, an event that would later shape his sensitivity to themes of memory,
A colossal robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman goddess of liberty.
The Statue of Liberty, formally titled Liberty Enlightening the World, emerged from the political idealism and transatlantic friendship of the nineteenth century. Conceived in 1865 by French political thinker Édouard René de Laboulaye as a monument to American independence and the abolition of slavery following the Civil War, the statue was envisioned as a gift from the people of France to the United States.
