History of New York City's Ticker-Tape Parades 1. October 28, 1886. Dedication of the Statue of Liberty New York City’s first ticker-tape parade took place in 1886, when Wall Street workers spontaneously began throwing ticker tape out of their office windows to celebrate the unveiling of “Liberty Enlightening the World” in New York Harbor. Though the statue was originally slated to be revealed on July 4, 1886, delays in construction pushed the Statue of Liberty inaugural ceremony back to October 28, a day renamed Bartholdi Day after its designer, Frenchman Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi. Despite the fog and rain, parade-goers marched through the streets and down to the Battery to witness the Statue of Liberty’s unveiling on Bedloe’s Island (today Liberty Island). As she was revealed, French and American flags waved in the air, guns fired, cannons blasted, church bells rang, and cheers echoed through the streets. Upwards of a million people attended the parade, making it a spectacle of epic proportions. Not all onlookers, however, watched contentedly. Members of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association, who declined to participate in the parade, voiced their displeasure from a nearby boat, condemning the nation’s celebration of a female symbol of liberty while it denied its women full citizenship. Some women’s rights organizations could even be heard chanting in protest as Bartholdi undraped the Statue. Nonetheless, in his closing remarks, President Grover Cleveland pledged to the crowd: “We will not forget that Liberty has made here her home, nor shall her chosen altar be neglected.” 2. April 29, 1889. Centennial of George Washington’s inauguration as first president of the United States The centennial of George Washington’s presidential inauguration provided the occasion for New York City’s second ticker-tape parade. Hoping to outshine Philadelphia’s centennial celebration of the Declaration of Independence thirteen years prior, New Yorkers conceived a festival of massive proportions. The three-day anniversary event featured dinners, balls, concerts, and speeches by the nation’s leading officials to enormous crowds. The eight-hour commemorative ticker-tape parade—the main spectacle—included nearly every club, organization, and trade association in New York City, including ex-Civil War soldiers, police officers, local fire brigades, and even a Ladies Auxiliary unit. Among the marchers and horse-drawn carriages, President Benjamin Harris rode atop a white horse, as Washington himself had on his inauguration day. Spectators recalled ticker tape and rose petals covering the streets as the sound of fireworks, church bells, cannons, and music filled the air; poet John Greenleaf Whittier even composed a special fifth verse to “America” (“My Country ’Tis of Thee”) for the occasion. As a testament to Washington’s legacy, local businessman William Rhinelander Stewart erected a large triumphal arch in Washington Square for the centennial parade. The arch was so well received that the city commissioned the Washington Arch by architect Stanford White in 1892; it would become the emblem of Washington Square Park and a permanent fixture in New York City architecture. 3. September 30, 1899. Adm. George Dewey, hero of the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War The third ticker tape parade in New York City’s history occurred in 1899, when Admiral George Dewey returned home from his victory in the Battle of Manila Bay in the Philippines. Dewey had served as commander of the seven-warship U.S. Asiatic Squadron during the Spanish- American War. On April 30 of 1898, Dewey’s fleet had entered the Spanish-controlled waters of the Philippines at Manila Bay, and by May 1, he had decimated the Spanish fleet and forced all remaining vessels to surrender. The naval victory was a key moment in the American victory, and the Treaty of Paris, which officially brought the war to an end in August 1898, resulted in U.S. cession of Puerto Rico, Guam, and—for a sum of twenty million dollars—the Philippines. Dewey’s triumph in the Spanish-American War marked the end of U.S. isolationism in global affairs and further distinguished the nation as a leading political and military power. But the occupation of these new and far-flung territories also marked the country’s first foray into imperialism, a development that raised alarm with many Americans. Their dismay only grew more intense as U.S. occupation of the Philippines spurred years of war on the islands and the death of tens of thousands of Filipinos. Despite this dissent, the two-day ticker-tape parade held in Dewey’s honor branded him a hero and led to his promotion to rear admiral in 1899 and to full admiral the following year. The celebration further ushered in a new era of military pageantry in New York City. Memorializing the legacy of military leaders and soldiers in ticker-tape parades quickly became a staple of New York political and popular culture. 4. June 18, 1910. Theodore Roosevelt, former president of the United States, on his return from an African safari Theodore Roosevelt’s return from his fifteen-month African safari was the largest recorded parade to that date and the first “officially sanctioned” ticker-tape parade in New York City. Though President Roosevelt had left office in March 1909, his homecoming from Africa over a year later earned him a hero’s welcome, attracting an estimated one million spectators. The day before his arrival, the Atlantic Constitution even reported that “It [was] a remarkable tribute to the man’s personality that virtually every element of citizenship in the country should be more or less on tiptoes in the excitement of anticipation.” As President Roosevelt entered New York Harbor the next day on the luxury liner Kaiserin, he was greeted by cheering crowds, an extravagant naval display, and a twenty-one-gun salute. Following his remarks, Roosevelt and his family, escorted by 150 members of his Rough Rider unit from the Spanish-American war and thousands of police officers, veterans, and soldiers, led a five-mile procession from Broadway to 59th Street and Fifth Avenue. Even as the parade proceeded down Wall Street (home to many of the same big businesses that were often the target of Roosevelt’s political rhetoric), office workers ardently applauded the president’s return, a testament to his powerful political legacy in New York. Roosevelt was a hero to many for his projection of masculine American power at home and around the world, for his championing of conservation and public lands, and for his strong stance against concentrated economic power. But the reality of his legacy was more complex. One example: as a Republican president and thus heir to the Party of Lincoln, he sought to appeal to black voters by speaking out against lynching and by inviting the African-American leader Booker T. Washington to the White House. But he also alienated many African-Americans by ordering the dishonorable discharge of 167 black soldiers during the controversial Brownsville Affair of 1906, when white Texans falsely accused the soldiers of going on a violent rampage (they were not granted honorable discharges until 1972). Two years after his ticker-tape parade, Roosevelt ran for president once again on his newly established Progressive Party ticket—popularly known as the Bull Moose Party. The third party advocated for social reform and the regulation of trusts and monopolies while also striking a blow to party support for the Republican candidate and Roosevelt’s protégé, William Howard Taft. While Roosevelt did not win the 1912 presidential election, the Progressive Party’s presence on the ballot undermined the Republican Party and led to Democratic nominee Woodrow Wilson’s victory. While President Theodore Roosevelt’s ticker-tape parade was truly a media sensation, his legacy continues to make for arguments and headlines today. In October 2017, protestors vandalized the statue of Roosevelt located outside the American Museum of Natural History. Erected in 1940, the statue had previously been a lightning rod for protests. It depicts Roosevelt on horseback aside a Native American man and an African man, imagery demonstrators referred to as an emblem of “patriarchy, white supremacy and settler-colonialism.” 5. May 9, 1917. Joseph J. C. Joffre, Marshal of France Joseph J. C. Joffre, known as “Papa Joffre” in France, arrived in the United States in April 1917, just days after the nation declared war against Germany in World War I. As the former head of the French army, Joffre commanded the French forces on the Western Front in World War I and led the decisive victory at the Battle of the Marne in September 1914, where he effectively pushed back German forces. Yet while Americans praised Joffre as a war hero, the French later blamed him for the German military attack at Verdun in 1916, and the general resigned under duress as chief of the French army in December 1916 to be succeeded by General Robert Nivelle. Months later, however, French Prime Minister Alexandre Ribot appointed Joffre Marshal of France and assigned him to accompany former French prime minister and then Lord Chancellor René Viviani on a mission to the United States that April. Ribot believed Joffre, still a celebrated war hero in America, would be the best representative of the French army and could help cultivate a working relationship between the two allies in the battle to come. Ribot was right: Joffre convinced the American forces to agree to his proposal and grant the French much-needed supplies and troops. His negotiations helped influence the American military and their role in the First World War, eventually leading to Allied victory. Following his diplomatic feat, Joffre embarked on a tour of the United States.