The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World); is a colossal sculpture on Liberty Island in the middle of New York Harbor, in Manhattan, New York City. The statue, designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886, was a gift to the United States from the people of France. The statue is of a robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom, who bears a torch and a tablet of the law, upon which is inscribed the date of the American Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. A broken chain lies at her feet. The statue is an icon of freedom and of the United States: a welcoming signal to immigrants arriving from abroad.1
The torch-bearing arm was displayed at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, and in New York's Madison Square Park from 1876 to 1882. Fundraising proved difficult, and by 1885 work on the pedestal was threatened due to lack of funds. Publisher Joseph Pulitzer of the New York World started a drive for donations to complete the project that attracted more than 120,000 contributors. The statue's completion was marked by New York's first ticker-tape parade and a dedication ceremony presided over by President Grover Cleveland.
The New Colossus is a sonnet by American poet Emma Lazarus (1849–87), written in 1883. In 1903, the poem was engraved on a bronze plaque and mounted inside the lower level of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.2
This poem was written as a donation to an auction of art and literary works to help raise money for the pedestal's construction. 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. Finally in 1903, 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 by Emma Lazarus
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. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
1 "Statue of Liberty." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. August 31, 2013. Web. August 31, 2013.