Cunningham wrote that "The Statue of Liberty was not conceived and sculpted as a symbol of immigration, but it quickly became so as immigrant ships passed under the statue. The New Colossus plaque, Statue of Liberty. The "air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame" refers to New York City and Brooklyn, not yet consolidated into one unit in 1883. The poem talks about the millions of immigrants who came to the United States (many of them through Ellis Island at the port of New York). The title of the poem and the first two lines refer to the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The line "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" has read "Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" on the plaque hanging inside the Statue of Liberty since its unveiling in 1903. 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 mounted on the inner wall of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. "The New Colossus" was the only entry read at the exhibit's opening, but was forgotten and played no role at the opening of the statue in 1886. Initially Lazarus refused, but Constance Cary Harrison convinced her that the statue would be of great significance to immigrants sailing into the harbor. The 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", the aim of which was to raise money for the pedestal's construction The contribution was solicited by fundraiser William Maxwell Evarts. Source: Emma Lazarus, The Poems of Emma Lazarus, vol.This poem is in the public domain History Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. 1973) John Bodnar, The Transplanted (1985) Philip Taylor, The Distant Magnet (1971) John Higham, Strangers in the Land (1955) Leonard Dinnerstein and David Reimers, Ethnic Americans: A History of Immigration and Assimilation (1975). "Other lands," wrote the Polish emigré Henry Sienkiewicz, "grant only asylum this land recognizes the immigrant as a son and grants him rights." When they were "sickened at last of poverty, bigotry and kings," wrote another immigrant, "there was always America!"įor further reading: Oscar Handlin, The Uprooted (1951 rev. A poem she wrote to help raise money for the pedestal, and which is carved on that pedestal, captured what the statue came to mean to the millions who migrated to the United States seeking freedom, and who have continued to come unto this day.Īs many modern scholars have noted, these words have an air of condescension, but the fact is that many native-born Americans and immigrants at the time did see themselves just as Lazarus portrayed them - wretched, nameless, "tempest-tost." For them Europe meant poverty and persecution, and America meant democracy and opportunity. Ironically, none of the speeches at the dedication of the monument in October 1886 even mentioned immigrants President Grover Cleveland spoke about Franco-American friendship and American ideals.īut the Jewish American poet Emma Lazarus saw the statue as a beacon to the world. France provided $400,000 for the 151-foot statue, and a fundraising drive in the United States netted $270,000 for the 89-foot pedestal. The statue, sculpted by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, had been conceived of as a gift of friendship from the people of France marking the two nations' commitment to liberty. Between 18, approximately 34 million persons immigrated to the United States, three-fourths of them staying permanently.įor many of these newcomers, their first glimpse of America was the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor. But by the middle of the nineteenth century, improvements in travel, combined with political upheaval and economic difficulties, led to a significant increase in the number of people crossing the Atlantic to seek opportunity in the United States. America had always been a magnet to Europeans, at first primarily from the British Isles, and then from the continent.