| History |  |
 |
Originally the bell hung in Independence Hall and according to tradition, rang out on July 8, 1776, to summon the citizens of Philadelphia to the State House yard to hear the first reading of the Declaration of Independence. It had also been rung to announce the opening of the First Continental Congress in 1774 and after the Battle of Lexington and Concord in 1775. Historians now consider this unlikely, as the steeple which housed the bell had deteriorated significantly by that time.
The Bell was originally commissioned in 1751 for the Pennsylvania State House to mark the 50th anniversary of William Penn's Charter of Privileges. The 2,000-pound bell, cast by Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London, cracked while it was being tested, and the Philadelphia firm of Pass and Stow recast it by 1753. In 1777, it survived a 60-mile horse and wagon trip to a church in Allentown, so the British wouldn't melt it down for ammunition.
The inscription on the Liberty Bell reads as follows:
"Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof Lev. XXV X. By Order of the ASSEMBLY of the Province of PENSYLVANIA for the State House in Philada, Pass and Stow, Philada, MDCCLIII".
The term Liberty Bell was coined by the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1837 as a symbol of the abolitionist movement. Prior to that, it had been known as the Independence or Old Yankee's Bell. It is not certain when the recast bell first showed a crack, but it was repaired in 1846. The last time it tolled was to celebrate Washington's birthday on February 22, 1846, and the crack grew from the top of the repaired crack to the crown of the bell, rendering the bell unusable.
In 1852, the bell was removed from its steeple, and put on display in the "Declaration Chamber" of Independence Hall. After traveling to numerous cities for displays at expositions and world's fairs through 1930, the bell resided in Independence Hall until it was moved to a glass-enclosed pavilion for the 1976 Bicentennial. In 2003, it was moved to the new Liberty Bell Center, a 13,000-square-foot, $12.9-million glass pavilion which features interactive exhibits, including an X-ray of the bell's crack and a film produced by the History Channel. |
See the tabloid
