Liberty Bell

The Liberty Bell, previously called the State House Bell or Old State House Bell, is an iconic symbol of American independence, located in Philadelphia. It was first called the Liberty Bell by members of the American abolitionist movement, who used it as a symbol. Originally placed in the steeple of the Pennsylvania State House (now known as Independence Hall), the Liberty Bell today is located across the street from Independence Hall in the Liberty Bell Center in Independence National Historical Park. The bell was commissioned in 1752 by the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly from the London-based firm Lester and Pack, later renamed the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, and was cast with the lettering "Proclaim LIBERTY Throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants Thereof". The bell first cracked when rung after its arrival in Philadelphia, and was twice recast by local workmen John Pass and John Stow, whose surnames appear on the bell. In its early years, the bell was used to summon lawmakers to legislative sessions and to alert citizens to public meetings and proclamations. It is likely that the Liberty Bell was among the bells in Philadelphia to ring on July 8, 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was first read to the public, although no contemporary account of the ringing is known to exist, and the association of the bell with the American Revolution did not begin until 1847, a decade after it was adopted by the abolitionists, who dubbed it the Liberty Bell. In the 1830s, it was adopted as a symbol by abolitionist societies, who dubbed it the "Liberty Bell". It acquired its distinctive large crack sometime in the first half of the 19th century—a widespread story claims it cracked while ringing after the death of Chief Justice John Marshall in 1835. In the late 19th and...