In 1916, when Liberty first appeared on the Walking Liberty half dollar, Secretary of the Treasury William McAdoo reported “a full-length figure of Liberty, the folds of the Stars and Stripes flying to the breeze as a back- ground, progressing in full stride toward the dawn of a new day, carrying branches of laurel and oak, symbolical of civil and military glory. The hand of the figure is outstretched in bestowal of the spirit of liberty.”
In 1918, Liberty marched through the Spanish flu pandemic. In 2020, Liberty walks on a silver dollar through Covid-19.