Liberty Bell
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
the call bell of colonial Philadelphia. In 1751 the assembly (city council) of Philadelphia ordered a bell cast in London with instructions that it should weight about 2,000 pounds and bear the inscription, "Proclaim Liberty Through-out All the Land, Unto All the Inhabitants Thereof." In 1752 the bell was hung in the belfry of Independence Hall . It soon met with an accident and was recast by a local firm. A year later it was necessary to recast the bell once more. From that time, it was used to toll all important events, including the battle of Lexington in April, 1775. At high noon, July 4, 1776, the bell was rung for the Proclamation of Independence, and in April, 1783, it rang the proclamation of peace with Great Britain . In July, 1835, while tolling for the death of John Marshall, whose body was passing to Virginia for burial, the old bell cracked and has been silent since. During the Revolutionary War the bell was removed in 1777 to Allentown to prevent its falling into the hands of the British, but it was brought back when the British evacuated Philadelphia. The Liberty Bell has been in great demand for exhibitions. It was, of course, a guest of honor at the Centennial Exposition held in Philadelphia in 1876. The bell has made seven exhibition trips as follows: In 1885 to New Orleans ; in 1893 to Chicago; in 1895 to Atlanta; in 1902 to Charleston, South Carolina ; in 1903 to Boston, to represent Philadelphia at the anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill , a celebration at which the presence of this relic was most appropriate; in 1904 to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition held at St. Louis; and in 1908 to the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition at Seattle. It is customary to permit school children to see the bell in the larger towns through which it passes. Many a small hand has been permitted to give the old bell a friendly pat. Samuel F. B. Morse. Inventors Alexander Graham Bell. Inventors Cyrus McCormick. Inventors Robert Fulton. Inventors John Ericsson. American Inventors Thomas A. Edison. American Inventors
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 account has the bell rung "at high noon, July 4, 1776" for the Proclamation of Independence; historians now treat that scene as legend, popularised by George Lippard's fictional tale of 1847, since the Declaration was not publicly read in Philadelphia until 8 July and the State House steeple was in poor repair. The tradition that the crack came while tolling for John Marshall in 1835 is likewise uncertain, with the break usually said to have been made final in the 1840s. The exhibition tours Aiton's lists so proudly ended after a last trip to the Panama-Pacific Exposition at San Francisco in 1915, when officials judged the bell too fragile to travel again. It left Independence Hall for a glass pavilion during the 1976 Bicentennial and since 2003 has stood in the Liberty Bell Center on Independence Mall, behind security screening.
Written for this edition, 2026.