Emma Lazarus

Emma Lazarus of Charleston, not to be confused with the famed New York poet of the same name, was the seventh of nine daughters born to shopkeepers Marks and Richa Lazarus, and was raised in Charleston in a household that would comprise 17 children in all. Her siblings included brothers Aaron, Joshua and Benjamin Dores and sister Leah. Her father, Marks Lazarus, found success elusive in the post-Revolutionary economy, and in 1785 her mother was registered as a sole trader, managing the family shop on top of her ongoing maternal responsibilities.

Perhaps it was due to this example of the hard work involved in raising so many children that Emma never married. Nevertheless, she maintained a close relationship to her brother Joshua and later to his wife, Phebe, after he married in 1835 and in 1840 she traveled with them to France, where this portrait was painted. Emma died in Sumter, South Carolina, in August 1865.

Emma Lazarus

c. 1840