Lazarus returned to New York City seriously ill after she completed her second trip to Europe, and she died two months later, on November 19, 1887,[5] most likely from Hodgkin's lymphoma. She never married.[31][32] Lazarus was buried in Beth Olam Cemetery in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn. The Poems of Emma Lazarus (2 vols., Boston and New York, 1889) was published after her death, comprising most of her poetic work from previous collections, periodical publications, and some of the literary heritage which her executors deemed appropriate to preserve for posterity.[24] Her papers are kept by the American Jewish Historical Society, Center for Jewish History,[33] and her letters are collected at Columbia University.[34]
A stamp featuring the Statue of Liberty and Lazarus's poem "The New Colossus" was issued by Antigua and Barbuda in 1985.[35] In 1992, she was named as a Women's History Month Honoree by the National Women's History Project.[36] Lazarus was honored by the Office of the Manhattan Borough President in March 2008, and her home on West 10th Street was included on a map of Women's Rights Historic Sites.[37] In 2009, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.[38] The Museum of Jewish Heritage featured an exhibition about Lazarus in 2012.
Biographer Esther Schor praised Lazarus' lasting contribution:
The irony is that the statue goes on speaking, even when the tide turns against immigration — even against immigrants themselves, as they adjust to their American lives. You can't think of the statue without hearing the words Emma Lazarus gave her.[39]
