By this time, there was hardly a sensate American who did not know about the Liberty Bell. The price of immortality was cooptation.
Organizations of every political stripe and multiple causes enlisted the Liberty Bell for what they wanted. Among the first since the abolitionists were women suffragists. Ships and airplanes were named after the Liberty Bell, and the Liberty Bell itself, standing in Independence Hall, formed the backdrop for many patriotic gatherings. By this time, organizations from far right to far left claimed the Liberty Bell as their own. These ranged from the Liberty Belles, who saturated the country with messages that the Sixteenth Amendment authorizing the federal income tax was unconstitutional, to many organizations involved in the civil rights movement who staged sit-ins at the Liberty Bell, to members of the Quebec Separatist Movement that planned to dynamite the Liberty Bell in , and to Earth Day environmentalists thronging the Liberty Bell on its first gathering in In , to celebrate the Bicentennial of the American Revolution, the National Park Service which assumed custodianship of the bell, along with Independence Hall, in moved the Liberty Bell from Independence Hall, where it had rested for more than two centuries, to a glass-and-brick pavilion facing Independence Hall a block away.
Then in it found a new home in a spacious exhibit building at Sixth and Market streets, where visitors today, averaging annually in the early twentieth-first century at about 1. Visitors can throw kisses at the nearly sacred bell, but they cannot touch it.
Leach, Roberta J. Mires, Charlene. Independence Hall in American Memory. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, Nash, Gary B. From Controversy to Collaboration. Rabinowitz, Richard. Liberty Bell Museum , W. Hamilton Street, Allentown, Pa. The Colonial fathers took this to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Charter of Liberties also know as the Charter of Privileges which was signed in It is the Charter of Liberties that gives the bell its name.
When I visited the Liberty Bell for the first time in and I was in awe to be in the same room with it, separated by only a velvet rope line.
At the end of the presentation, I was surprised when the line retracted and we were allowed to touch the bell along its rim where people had carved off pieces of the metal. So many had touched it that the sharp edges had become smooth and polished. It is a moment that I shall never forget. I understand why it is no longer allowed, but it is sad that the practice was ended. I finally first visited the bell in when I was sixteen. No one knows today when the Bell was cracked. The crack is a big subject of debate among historians.
One theory is the Bell got its first crack in when it was tested upon its arrival in Philadelphia. The Liberty Bell rang often during its functional lifetime.
Between and , the Bell tolled for many people and occasions. The bell was originally known as the State House Bell. In the late s, it acquired the name of the Liberty Bell when it became a symbol of the anti-slavery movement.
According to Whitechapel Bell Foundry records, the bell arrived in perfect condition--which later became an important issue. The bell was hung between temporary scaffolding to test its sound.
The clapper was swung, and the first time the bell was struck, it cracked! This U. Government photo of the Liberty Bell shows the Pass and Stow names on the inscription. There were no ships in port to return the damaged bell. Pass and Stow broke the bell into chunks and melted them down, but at some point during the recast, Pass and Stow added copper to the composition and this changed the tone of the bell considerably.
They recast the bell again using a correct balance of metals. In , the bell was hung in the State House tower. Street entrance of Whitechapel Bell Foundry, London.
Photo taken on 14 September by Mramoeba. Thomas Lester was once again hired to create the second bell. The bell was attached to the State House clock and rang the hours. It was temporarily loaned to the St. Augustine Church in Philadelphia, but was seriously damaged, along with the church, during Nativist Riots in The Sister Bell was recast by the friars of St. It is now in the Falvey Memorial Library on Villanova's campus.
Holdings of the Lehigh County Historical Society. Before , the bell was rung to warn of fires in the town and to announce important events, such as public meetings, and to announce the repeal of the Sugar Act. It was also rung to announce the meeting regarding the Stamp Act. These events were historically important because they led to the American Revolution.
In , when British troops moved on Philadelphia, the Liberty Bell and other important town bells were hidden to keep the British from melting them down and using them as weapons. By the late s it was clear that the importance of the Liberty Bell had grown tremendously and Americans viewed the bell as a symbol of freedom. It was decided that the bell could be useful in unifying the country and its first task in this goal was discussed by city officials in The wisdom in using the bell to announce the sounds of freedom was highly debated due to its physical condition.
Some officials believed the bell cound be repaired, while others thought the risk to the national icon was too great. Still others believed that the bell's crack was part of its national identity and the bell should remain protected and unchanged.
The final decision was creative--cast yet another bell. A replica, which was deliberately made to weigh 13, pounds, or pounds for each of the original states, was created and named "The Centennial Bell.
The Centennial Bell has great symbolism. It was made out of the melted metals of four canons that had all served in battle. Two canons were used in the Revolutionary War and they were recast to form two sides of the bell. State Dog. State Firearm. State Fish. State Flag. State Flagship. State Flower. State Fossil. State Insect. State Locomotive 1.
State Locomotive 2.
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