Monument to the Immigrant

The Monument to the Immigrant in New Orleans is a Carrara marble sculpture on the Mississippi riverfront, carved from stone sourced from Michelangelo's quarry to honor over 500,000 19th-century arrivals. Sculpted by Franco Alessandrini and dedicated on March 19, 1995, the monument depicts a historical family facing the French Quarter. Between 1837 and 1860, New Orleans served as America's second-busiest immigration gateway.

New Orleans · from the walk “Moon Walk: New Orleans Riverfront Revealed” · audio ~3 min · Generated

Monument to the Immigrant, Woldenberg Park, New Orleans

Where did sculptor Franco Alessandrini source the marble for the Monument to the Immigrant in New Orleans?

Take a look at the white marble figure before you, reaching out over the water like a guardian spirit watching the Mississippi. This is the Monument to the Immigrant... and it stands on ground where thousands of real lives began again.......... The sculptor, Fran-co Alessandrini, was himself an immigrant. Born in Sansepolcro, Tuscany, he came to Louisiana in the nineteen seventies and made New Orleans his home. When the Italian American Marching Club commissioned him to create this monument, he did something remarkable. He traveled back to Carrara, Italy... the same quarries where Michelangelo hand-picked marble for his Pietà and his David over five hundred years ago... to personally select the stone. Even the marble itself is an immigrant.......... Alessandrini didn't work from imagination alone. He used actual photographs of immigrants arriving in New Orleans to carve the family you see here with historical accuracy. Notice how the family faces the French Quarter... because that's exactly where most immigrants settled when they arrived. The other side, that striking ship's prow figure, faces the river, evoking Lady Liberty.......... Now here's what most people don't realize about where you're standing. Before the Civil War, the Port of New Orleans was the Second busiest immigration gateway in the entire United States, right behind New York. Between eighteen thirty-seven and eighteen sixty, over half a million people stepped off ships right here. And there was a grim reason so many chose this port... ships carrying southern cotton to Europe returned half-empty, so shipping companies offered bargain fares to fill the space. Can you imagine... your ticket to a new life, made affordable by bales of cotton?......... But passage through New Orleans was dangerous. Yellow fever and malaria struck the city ruthlessly. In eighteen fifty-three alone, an epidemic killed roughly ten percent of the entire population. Travel guides actually warned immigrants to avoid arriving between May and November.......... This monument was dedicated on March nineteenth, nineteen ninety-five. Judge Anthony Russo ended his speech with words that still echo across this riverfront... "Let US Not Forget Our Immigrants!" The inscription at the base reads simply... dedicated to the courageous men and women who left their homeland seeking freedom, opportunity, and a better life in a new country.