NEW YORK — Give me your tired, your poor — your Internet-connected masses yearning to see.
Lady Liberty is getting high-tech gifts for her 125th birthday: Web cams on her torch that will let viewers gaze out at New York Harbor and read the tablet in her hands or see visitors on the grounds of the island below in real time.
The five torch cams are to be switched on Friday during a ceremony to commemorate the dedication of the Statue of Liberty on Oct. 28, 1886. The ceremony caps a week of events centered around the date, including the debut of a major museum exhibition about poet Emma Lazarus, who helped bring the monument renown as the “Mother of Exiles.”
The statue’s Web cams will offer views from the torch that have been unavailable to the public since 1916, said Stephen Briganti, the president of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation Inc.
“The statue is the most famous symbol in the world,” he said. “Most of the people in the world have seen it, but they have not seen it like this. It will be a visit that so many people, including New Yorkers, have never taken before.”
Through the Web cams, Internet users worldwide will have four views, including a 180-degree panorama of the harbor with stunning views of Ellis and Governors islands. They will watch ships go by Liberty Island and observe as the Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center goes up floor-by-floor in lower Manhattan. They can get a fish-eye look at the torch itself as it glows in the night.
The five cameras, which will be on 24 hours, seven days a week, were donated to the National Park Service by Earthcam Inc., a New Jersey-based company that manages Web cams around the world.
The cameras put viewers on the balcony of the torch and high above the crown, Brian Cury, the founder of Earthcam, said. “This is not your dad’s picture of the Statue of Liberty,” he said. “This is not a view from a tourist helicopter. This is unique.”
Friday’s ceremony will include a water flotilla, actress Sigourney Weaver’s reading of Ms. Lazarus’ poem, and a naturalization ceremony for 125 candidates for citizenship representing more than 40 countries. The public is invited, with ferry service available between Manhattan and Liberty Island.
The interior of the statue — from the pedestal down to the museum base — will close after the 125th celebration for up to a year so that stairwells, elevators, and mechanical systems can be upgraded. The park will stay open.
The statue, by sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, was given by the French government to the United States as a token of friendship between the two nations and dedicated by President Grover Cleveland.
And while it is known as a symbol of liberty for millions of refugees and exiles, the famous sonnet, “The New Colossus,” in the voice of the statue asking for “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” did not appear on the statue until 1903.
Ms. Lazarus is the subject of an exhibit at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in lower Manhattan, which has views of Lady Liberty. It’s to open Wednesday to coincide with the anniversary of the statue’s dedication.
“Poet of Exiles” is the first full-fledged artifact exhibit at a major museum to robustly explore the life of Ms. Lazarus, from her work as an advocate for immigrants fleeing the Russian pogroms of the early 1880s to her pioneering support for a Jewish homeland. She died in 1887 at age 38, never knowing her poem would be united with the Statue of Liberty.
First Published October 24, 2011, 4:30 a.m.
