Founding (1751–1753) Philadelphia's city bell was used to alert the public to proclamations or civic danger since the city's 1682 founding. The original bell, hung from a tree behind the Pennsylvania State House, now known as
Independence Hall, was brought to the city by its founder,
William Penn. In 1751, with a
bell tower being built in the Pennsylvania State House, civic authorities sought a bell of better quality that could be heard at a greater distance in the rapidly expanding city.
Isaac Norris, speaker of the
Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly, gave orders to the colony's
London agent, Robert Charles, to obtain a "good Bell of about two thousands pound weight".
Inscription The inscription on the bell reads: Proclaim LIBERTY Throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants Thereof Lev. XXV. v X. By Order of the ASSEMBLY of the Province of PENSYLVANIA for the State House in PhiladA Pass and Stow Philada MDCCLIII At the time, "Pensylvania" was an accepted alternative spelling for
Pennsylvania. In 1787, the spelling was used by
Alexander Hamilton, a
Founding Father and the first
U.S. Treasury Secretary, on the signature page of the
Constitution of the United States. Robert Charles ordered the bell from Thomas Lester of the London bell-founding firm of Lester and Pack, later known as the
Whitechapel Bell Foundry, for
£150 13
s 8
d, (equivalent to £ in ) including freight to
Philadelphia and insurance on its transport. It arrived in Philadelphia in August 1752. Norris wrote to Charles that the bell was in good order, but they had not yet sounded it, since they were building a clock for the State House's tower. The bell was mounted on a stand to test the sound, and at the first strike of the clapper, the bell's rim cracked. The episode was used to good account in later stories of the bell; in 1893,
President Benjamin Harrison, speaking as the bell passed through
Indianapolis, said, "This old bell was made in England, but it had to be recast in America before it was attuned to proclaim the right of self-government and the equal rights of men." Philadelphia authorities tried to return it by ship, but the master of the vessel that had brought it was unable to take it on board. Two local
founders, John Pass and John Stow, offered to recast the bell. Though they were inexperienced in bell casting, Pass headed the Mount Holly Iron Foundry in neighboring
Mount Holly, New Jersey, and came from
Malta, which had a tradition of bell casting. Stow was only four years out of his apprenticeship as a brass founder. At Stow's foundry on 2nd Street in Philadelphia, the bell was broken into small pieces, melted down, and cast into a new bell. The two founders decided that the metal was too brittle, and augmented the bell metal by about ten percent, using copper. By March 1753, the bell was ready, and Norris reported that the lettering, which included the founders' names and the year, was even clearer on the new bell than on the old. City officials in Philadelphia scheduled a public celebration with free food and drink for the testing of the recast bell. When the bell was struck, it did not break, but the sound produced was described by one hearer as similar to that of two
coal scuttles being banged together. Mocked by the crowd, Pass and Stow hastily took the bell away to again recast it. In June 1753, the recasting was completed, and the sound was deemed satisfactory, though Norris indicated that he did not personally like it. The bell was hung in the steeple of the State House the same month. The reason for the difficulties with the bell is not certain. The Whitechapel Foundry took the position that the bell was either damaged in transit or was broken by an inexperienced bell ringer, who incautiously sent the clapper flying against the rim, rather than the body of the bell. In 1975, the
Winterthur Museum in
Delaware conducted an analysis of the metal in the bell, concluding that "a series of errors made in the construction, reconstruction, and second reconstruction of the Bell resulted in a brittle bell that barely missed being broken up for scrap". The Museum found a considerably higher level of tin in the Liberty Bell than in other Whitechapel bells of that era, and suggested that Whitechapel made an error in the
alloy, perhaps by using scraps with a high level of tin to begin the melt instead of the usual pure copper. The analysis concluded that, on the second recasting, instead of adding pure tin to the bell metal, Pass and Stow added cheap
pewter with a high lead content, and incompletely mixed the new metal into the mold. The result was "an extremely brittle alloy which not only caused the Bell to fail in service but made it easy for early souvenir collectors to knock off substantial trophies from the rim".
American Revolution , as it appeared in the 1770s|alt=Drawing of a handsome building with a bell tower and a wing on each side. Horse-drawn carriages are seen in the street. at 622
Hamilton Street in
Allentown, Pennsylvania, where the Liberty Bell was hidden under floor boards from the
British Army from September 1777 until June 1778 during the British
occupation of
Philadelphia during the
Revolutionary War. Dissatisfied with the bell, Norris instructed Charles to order a second one, and see if Lester and Pack would take back the first bell and credit the value of the metal towards the bill. In 1754, the Assembly decided to keep both bells; the new one was attached to the tower clock while the old bell was, by vote of the Assembly, devoted "to such Uses as this House may hereafter appoint." The bell was rung in 1760 to mark the accession of
George III to the throne. Despite the legend that the Liberty Bell rang following the unanimous adoption of the
Declaration of Independence by the
Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, there is no evidence to support that, and it is unlikely since the first public readings of the Declaration of Independence were not until four days later, on July 8, 1776. There is historical documentation that when the Declaration was read publicly in Philadelphia, bells around the city were rung in commemoration. While the Liberty Bell is not specifically referenced, most historical authorities agree that it was likely among the bells that rang that day. However, there is some chance that the poor condition of the State House bell tower prevented the bell from ringing. If the Liberty Bell was rung, it was most likely rung by
Andrew McNair, the doorkeeper to the Assembly and the
Continental Congress, who was responsible for the bell's ringing. Bells were also rung to celebrate the first anniversary of Independence on July 4, 1777. The bell remained hidden in Allentown for nine months. In June 1778, following the British retreat from Philadelphia on June 18, 1778, it was returned. Upon the bell's return to Philadelphia, the steeple of the State House was in poor condition, and was subsequently torn down and restored. The bell was placed in storage until 1785, when it was again mounted for ringing. Following the victory of Washington and the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, the bell was placed on an upper floor of State House, later named
Independence Hall, where it was rung on
Independence Day, on
Washington's Birthday, and on
election day to remind voters to hand in their ballots. It also rang to call students at the
University of Pennsylvania to their classes at nearby
Philosophical Hall. Between 1785 and 1799, when the Pennsylvania state capital was briefly moved to
Lancaster, it was rung to summon state legislators into session. When Pennsylvania officials, having no further use for State House, proposed tearing it down and selling the land for building lots, the City of Philadelphia purchased the land, State House, and the Liberty Bell, for $70,000, equal to $ today.
19th century In 1828, the City of Philadelphia sold the second Lester and Pack bell to
St. Augustine's Roman Catholic Church, which was burned down in 1844 by an anti-
Catholic mob in the
Philadelphia Nativist Riots. The remains of the bell were recast and then housed at
Villanova University in nearby
Villanova, Pennsylvania. It is not definitively known when or how the Liberty Bell first came to be cracked, but it is known that the damage occurred sometime between 1817 and 1846 and likely toward the end of this period. In 1837, the bell was depicted in an anti-slavery publication, and no crack is identifiable in that image. Nine years later, in February 1846, the
Public Ledger reported that the bell was rung the day following
Washington's Birthday, on February 23, 1846. Since February 22 was a Sunday, the celebration occurred the next day. The newspaper reported that the bell had long been cracked, but had been "put in order" by having the sides of the crack filed. The paper reported that, around noon on February 23, 1846, it was discovered that the bell's ringing was causing the crack to be extended, and that "the old Independence Bell...now hangs in the great city steeple irreparably cracked and forever dumb." The most common story about the cracking of the bell, which originated in 1876, is that it happened when the bell was rung upon the 1835 death of the
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall when the volunteer curator of
Independence Hall, Colonel Frank Etting, announced that he had ascertained the truth of the bell's cracking. While there is little evidence to support Etting's view, it was widely accepted and taught. Other claims regarding the crack's origin include stories that it was damaged during welcoming ceremonies for
Lafayette on his return to the United States in 1824, that it cracked announcing the passing of the British
Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, and that some boys had been invited to ring the bell and inadvertently damaged it. David Kimball, in a book authored for the
National Park Service, suggests that it most likely cracked sometime between 1841 and 1845, during its ringing on either Independence Day or on Washington's Birthday.
Abolitionists in the antebellum period gave the bell its best-known name, as well as new meaning as an icon of protest against slavery. The Pass and Stow bell was first termed "The Liberty Bell" in
Anti-Slavery Record, a journal published by the New York Anti-Slavery Society, which argued that "Hitherto, the bell has not obeyed the inscription and its peals have been a mockery, while one sixth of ‘all inhabitants’ are in abject slavery”. In 1839,
William Lloyd Garrison's anti-slavery publication
The Liberator reprinted a Boston abolitionist pamphlet containing a poem entitled "The Liberty Bell," which noted that, at that time, despite its inscription, the bell did not proclaim liberty to all the inhabitants of the land. That same year, Boston abolitionists led by
Maria Weston Chapman began publishing an annual antislavery gift book called
The Liberty Bell, which they sold at antislavery fairs to raise funds for the movement. Garrison, along with many other abolitionists including
Frederick Douglass, also frequently invoked Leviticus 25:10, the biblical passage inscribed on the bell, to connect their movement with the idea of
Jubilee. A great part of the modern image of the bell as a relic of the proclamation of American independence was forged by writer
George Lippard. On January 2, 1847, he published an article, "Fourth of July, 1776", in the
Saturday Courier. The short story depicted an aged bellman on July 4, 1776, sitting morosely by the bell, fearing that
Congress would not have the courage to declare independence. At the most dramatic moment, a young boy appears with instructions for the old man: to ring the bell. It was subsequently published in Lippard's collected stories. The story was widely reprinted and closely linked the Liberty Bell to the Declaration of Independence in the public mind. The elements of the story were reprinted in early historian
Benson J. Lossing's
The Pictorial Field Guide to the Revolution (published in 1850) as historical fact, and the tale was widely repeated for generations after in school primers. In 1848, with the rise of interest in the bell, the city decided to move it to the Assembly Room, also known as the Declaration Chamber, on the first floor, where the Declaration and
United States Constitution had been debated and signed. The city constructed an ornate pedestal for the bell. The Liberty Bell was displayed on that pedestal for the next quarter-century, surmounted by an eagle (originally sculpted, later stuffed). In 1853, President
Franklin Pierce visited Philadelphia and the bell, and spoke of the bell as symbolizing the American Revolution and American liberty. At the time, Independence Hall was also used as a courthouse, and African-American newspapers pointed out the incongruity of housing a symbol of liberty in the same building in which federal judges were holding hearings under the
Fugitive Slave Act. In February 1861, then
President-elect Abraham Lincoln came to the Assembly Room and delivered an address en route to his inauguration in Washington D.C. In 1865, Lincoln's body was returned to the Assembly Room after
his assassination for a public viewing of his body, en route to his burial in
Springfield, Illinois. Due to time constraints, only a small fraction of those wishing to pass by the coffin were able to; the lines to see the coffin were never less than long. Nevertheless, between 120,000 and 140,000 people were able to pass by the open casket and then the bell, carefully placed at Lincoln's head so mourners could read the inscription, "Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." While the Liberty Bell was not displayed at the Centennial Exposition, a great many exposition visitors came to visit it. Its image was ubiquitous throughout the exposition grounds. Myriad souvenirs were sold bearing its image or shape, and state pavilions contained replicas of the bell made of substances ranging from stone to tobacco. In 1877, the bell was hung from the ceiling of the Assembly Room by a chain with thirteen links. Between 1885 and 1915, the Liberty Bell was transported to seven expositions and celebrations. Each time, the bell traveled by
railroad, and an extra number of rail stops were made along way so that local people could view it. By 1885, the Liberty Bell was widely recognized as a symbol of freedom, and as a treasured relic of independence and freedom, and was growing increasingly famous as versions of
George Lippard's legend were reprinted in history and school books. In early 1885, the city agreed to let it travel to
New Orleans for the
World Cotton Centennial exposition. Large crowds mobbed the bell at each stop. In
Biloxi, Mississippi, the former
President of the Confederate States of America,
Jefferson Davis, visited the bell and delivered a speech paying homage to it and urging national unity. In 1893, it was sent to the
World Columbian Exposition in
Chicago, where it was the centerpiece of the state's exhibit in the Pennsylvania Building. On July 4, 1893, in Chicago, the bell was serenaded with the first performance of
The Liberty Bell March, conducted by
John Philip Sousa. Philadelphians began to cool to the idea of sending it to other cities when it returned from Chicago bearing a new crack, and each new proposed journey met with increasing opposition. It was also found that the bell's private watchman had been cutting off small pieces for souvenirs. Philadelphia placed the bell in a glass-fronted oak case. In 1898, it was taken out of the glass case and hung from its yoke again in the tower hall of
Independence Hall, a room that would remain its home until the end of 1975. A guard was posted by the bell to prevent souvenir hunters who might otherwise chip at it. By 1909, the bell was sent on six trips. The bell's cracking worsened, and souvenir hunters had chipped off pieces of it, depriving it of over one percent of its weight. Its weight was reported as in 1904.
20th century in July 1951|alt=number of tourists, of all races and ages, dressed in the fashions of sixty years ago, gather around the Liberty Bell. in
Philadelphia, the Liberty Bell's home from 1976 to 2003 In 1912, the organizers of the
Panama–Pacific International Exposition requested the bell for the 1915 fair in
San Francisco, but Philadelphia was reluctant to let it travel again. The city finally agreed to let it be transported to San Francisco since it had never been west of
St. Louis, and it was a chance to allow millions of Americans to see it who might never again have the opportunity. In 1914, fearing that the cracks might lengthen during the long train ride to San Francisco, Philadelphia installed a metal support structure inside the bell, called the "spider". In February 1915, the bell was tapped gently with wooden mallets to produce sounds that were transmitted to the fair as the signal to open it, a transmission that also inaugurated transcontinental telephone service. Some five million Americans saw the bell on its train journey west. It is estimated that nearly two million kissed it at the fair, with an uncounted number viewing it. The bell was taken on a different route on its way home during which another five million people viewed it. In 1924, one of Independence Hall's exterior doors was replaced by glass, allowing some view of the bell even when the building was closed. When
Congress enacted the nation's first peacetime draft in 1940, the first Philadelphians required to serve took their oaths of enlistment before the Liberty Bell. Once
World War II began, the bell was again a symbol to sell war bonds. Since the bell returned to Philadelphia, it has been moved out of doors only five times: three times for patriotic observances during and after
World War I, and twice as the bell occupied new homes in 1976 and 2003.
Chicago and San Francisco had obtained their visits after presenting petitions signed by hundreds of thousands of children. In 1933, Chicago tried again, with a petition signed by 3.4 million schoolchildren, for the 1933
Century of Progress Exhibition and New York presented a petition to secure a visit from the bell for the
1939 New York World's Fair. Both efforts failed. During
World War II, it was feared that the bell might be in danger from saboteurs or enemy bombing, and city officials considered moving the bell to
Fort Knox, to be stored with the nation's gold reserves. The idea provoked a storm of protest from around the nation, and was abandoned. Officials then considered building an underground steel vault above which it would be displayed, and into which it could be lowered if necessary. The project was dropped after studies concluded that the digging might undermine the foundations of Independence Hall. On December 17, 1944, the Whitechapel Bell Foundry offered to recast the bell at no cost as a gesture of Anglo-American friendship. The bell was again tapped on
D-Day,
V-E Day, and
V-J Day. After
World War II, and following considerable controversy, the City of Philadelphia agreed that it would transfer custody of the bell and Independence Hall, while retaining ownership, to the federal government. The city would also transfer various colonial-era buildings it owned. Congress agreed to the transfer in 1948, and three years later
Independence National Historical Park was founded, incorporating those properties and administered by the
National Park Service (NPS or Park Service). In the postwar period, the bell became a symbol of freedom used in the
Cold War. The bell was chosen for the symbol of a
savings bond campaign in 1950. The purpose of this campaign, as then
Vice President Alben W. Barkley said, was to make the country "so strong that no one can impose ruthless, godless ideologies on us". In 1955, former residents of nations behind the
Iron Curtain were allowed to tap the bell as a symbol of hope and encouragement to their compatriots. Foreign dignitaries, including
Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and
West Berlin Mayor
Ernst Reuter, have visited the Liberty Bell, and they commented that the bell symbolized the link between the United States and their nations. Almost from the start of its stewardship, the Park Service sought to move the bell from Independence Hall to a structure where it would be easier to care for the bell and accommodate visitors. The first such proposal was withdrawn in 1958, after considerable public protest. The Park Service tried again as part of the planning for the 1976
United States Bicentennial. The Independence National Historical Park Advisory Committee proposed in 1969 that the bell be moved out of Independence Hall, as the building could not accommodate the millions expected to visit Philadelphia for the Bicentennial. In 1972, the Park Service announced plans to build a large glass tower for the bell at the new visitors center at S. Third and
Chestnut streets, two blocks east of
Independence Hall, at a cost of $5 million, but citizens again protested the move. Instead, in 1973, the Park Service proposed to build a smaller glass pavilion for the bell at the north end of Independence Mall, between
Arch and Race streets. Philadelphia Mayor
Frank Rizzo agreed with the pavilion idea, but proposed that the pavilion be built across Chestnut Street from Independence Hall, which the state feared would destroy the view of the historic building from the mall area. Rizzo's view prevailed, and the bell was moved to a glass-and-steel
Liberty Bell Pavilion, about from its old home at Independence Hall, as the Bicentennial year began. During the Bicentennial, members of the
Procrastinators' Club of America jokingly picketed the Whitechapel Bell Foundry with signs "We got a lemon" and "What about the warranty?" The foundry told the protesters that it would be glad to replace the bell, so long as it was returned in the original packaging. and was housed in the tower once intended for the Liberty Bell, at the former visitor center on South Third Street.
Liberty Bell Center and the Centennial Bell visible in its steeple in the background with the
Liberty Bell Center (on right) in January 2022 In 1995, the Park Service began preliminary work on a redesign of Independence Mall. Architects
Venturi, Scott Brown & Associates developed a master plan with two design alternatives. The first proposed a block-long visitors center on the south side of
Market Street, which would also house the Liberty Bell. This would have interrupted the mall's three-block vista of Independence Hall, and made the bell visible only from the south, on Chestnut Street. The second alternative placed a similar visitors center on the north side of Market Street, also interrupting the mall's vista, with the bell in a small pavilion on the south side. City planner
Edmund Bacon, who oversaw the mall's design in the 1950s, saw preservation of the vista of Independence Hall as essential. He created his own plan that included a domed bell pavilion built north of Market Street. Public reaction to the possibility of moving the Liberty Bell so far from Independence Hall was strongly negative. NPS announced that the bell would remain on the block between Chestnut and Market streets. Other plans were proposed, each had strengths and weaknesses, but the goal of all was to encourage visitors to see more of the historical park than just the Liberty Bell. The
Olin Partnership was hired to create a new master plan for Independence Mall; its team included architect
Bernard Cywinski, who ultimately won a limited design competition to design what was called the Liberty Bell Center (LBC). Cywinski's design was unveiled in early 1999. Significantly larger than the existing pavilion, allowing for exhibit space and an interpretive center, the proposed LBC building also would cover about 15% of the footprint of the long-demolished
President's House, the residence used by
George Washington and
John Adams before the
White House was completed in 1800. Archaeologists excavating the LBC's intended site uncovered remnants of the 1790–1800 executive mansion that were reburied. The project became highly controversial when it was revealed that
George Washington's slaves had been housed only feet from the planned Liberty Bell Center's main entrance. The Park Service refused to redesign the LBC building, or delay its construction. NPS initially resisted interpreting the slaves and the slave quarters, but after years of protest by Black activists, agreed.
21st century The new facility that opened hours after the bell was installed on October 9, 2003, is adjacent to an outline of Washington's slave quarters marked in the pavement, with interpretive panels explaining the significance of what was found. Inside the Liberty Bell Center, visitors pass through a number of exhibits about the bell before reaching the Liberty Bell itself. Due to security concerns following an attack on the bell by a visitor with a hammer in 2001, the bell is hung out of easy reach of visitors, who are no longer allowed to touch it, and all visitors undergo a security screening. The Liberty Bell now weighs . Its metal is 70% copper and 25% tin, with the remainder consisting of lead, zinc, arsenic, gold, and silver. It hangs from what is believed to be its original yoke, made from
American elm. Although the crack in the bell appears to end at the abbreviation "Philada" in the last line of the inscription, that is merely the widened crack, filed out during the 19th century to allow the bell to ring. A hairline crack, extending through to the inside of the bell, continues towards the right and gradually moves to the top of the bell, through the word "and" in "Pass and Stow", then through the word "the" before the word "Assembly", and finally through the letters "rty" in the word "Liberty". The crack ends near the attachment with the yoke. Professor Constance M. Greiff, in her book tracing the history of Independence National Historical Park, wrote of the Liberty Bell: [T]he Liberty Bell is the most venerated object in the park, a national icon. It is not as beautiful as some other things that were in Independence Hall in those momentous days two hundred years ago, and it is irreparably damaged. Perhaps that is part of its almost mystical appeal. Like our democracy it is fragile and imperfect, but it has weathered threats, and it has endured. == Legacy and commemorations ==