Robert J. Thompson, citizen of Chicago, notes that Paris does not have any statue of General La Fayette in the 19th century. And so, he opens a subscription in American schools to pay homage to the hero of the American War of Independence. He wish to thank France for offering the Statue of Liberty in 1886. The project is accepted in 1899 and the American Paul Wayland Bartlett (1865-1925) is commissioned to create it. Placed in the Cour Napoléon of the Louvre, it will adorn the Cour la Reine in 1985 to make way for the great glass pyramid.