The New Colossus, which appears on the bronze plaque in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty which was placed in 1903. The sonnet was written in 1883 and donated to an auction, conducted by the "Art Loan Fund Exhibition in Aid of the Bartholdi Pedestal Fund for the Statue of Liberty" in order to raise funds to build the pedestal.

The poet, Emma Lazarus was born in New York City, July 22, 1849, into a large Sephardic Jewish family. She was the fourth of seven children of Moses Lazarus, a wealthy Jewish merchant, and sugar refiner; and Esther Nathan.

Privately educated by tutors from an early age, she studied American and British literature, as well as several languages, including German, French, and Italian.

In 1883, she founded the Society for the Improvement and Colonization of East European Jews.[8] An important forerunner of the Zionist movement.