page_title: The New Colossus
section_title: History of the poem
hierarchical_section_title: The New Colossus / History of the poem
caption_attribution_description: English: Statue of Liberty.Latina: Statua Libertatis.Español: Estatua de la Libertad.
context_page_description: "The New Colossus" is a sonnet by American poet Emma Lazarus. She wrote the poem in 1883 to raise money for the construction of a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty. In 1903, the poem was cast onto a bronze plaque and mounted inside the pedestal's lower level.
context_section_description: This poem was written as a donation to an auction of art and literary works conducted by the "Art Loan Fund Exhibition in Aid of the Bartholdi Pedestal Fund for the Statue of Liberty" to raise money for the pedestal's construction. Lazarus's contribution was solicited by fundraiser William Maxwell Evarts. Initially she refused but writer Constance Cary Harrison convinced her that the statue would be of great significance to immigrants sailing into the harbor.
  "The New Colossus" was the first entry read at the exhibit's opening on November 2, 1883. It remained associated with the exhibit through a published catalog until the exhibit closed after the pedestal was fully funded in August 1885, but was forgotten and played no role at the opening of the statue in 1886. It was, however, published in Joseph Pulitzer's New York World as well as The New York Times during this time period. In 1901, Lazarus's friend Georgina Schuyler began an effort to memorialize Lazarus and her poem, which succeeded in 1903 when a plaque bearing the text of the poem was put on the inner wall of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.
  On the plaque hanging inside the Statue of Liberty, the line "Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" is missing a comma, and reads in Lazarus's manuscript "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" since its unveiling in 1903.  The plaque also describes itself as an engraving; it is actually a casting.
  The original manuscript is held by the American Jewish Historical Society.
caption: The Statue of Liberty in New York City
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