The Liberty Bell

The Liberty Bell bears a timeless message: “Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants thereof”

Go beyond the iconic crack to learn how this State House bell was transformed into an extraordinary symbol. Abolitionists, women’s suffrage advocates and Civil Rights leaders took inspiration from the inscription on this bell.

The State House bell, now known as the Liberty Bell, rang in the tower of the Pennsylvania State House. Today, we call that building Independence Hall. Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly Isaac Norris first ordered a bell for the bell tower in 1751 from the Whitechapel Foundry in London. That bell cracked on the first test ring.

Local metalworkers John Pass and John Stow melted down that bell and cast a new one right here in Philadelphia. It’s this bell that would ring to call lawmakers to their meetings and the townspeople together to hear the reading of the news.

Benjamin Franklin wrote to Catherine Ray in 1755, “Adieu, the Bell rings, and I must go among the Grave ones and talk Politicks.” It was not until the 1830’s that the old State House bell would begin to take on significance as a symbol of liberty.