Plaque, "The New Colussus"

ca. 1903

Emma Lazarus’ poem depicts the Statue as the “Mother of Exiles” welcoming all “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” After Lazarus’ death in 1887, her friend Georgina Schuyler rediscovered the poem in 1901 and campaigned to affix this plaque to the Statue’s pedestal in 1903. The original plaque is mounted inside the pedestal.

Bronze. H 58.42, W 73.66 cm.
Statue of Liberty National Monument, STLI 41142