The Liberty Bell (700L)
The Liberty Bell is one of the most famous symbols of the United States. It hangs in Philadelphia, across from Independence Hall. Long ago, leaders met in that building to debate and sign important documents. People visit the bell to remember the ideas of freedom and equality.
The bell arrived from England in 1752. It cracked soon after it was tested, and two local metalworkers melted and recast it. The bell was rung for meetings and news. Many years later, the bell’s crack grew larger. Today, the bell is no longer rung, but the crack is part of its story.
In the 1800s, people began to call it the “Liberty Bell.” The name came from a message written on the metal: “Proclaim LIBERTY Throughout all the Land Unto all the Inhabitants Thereof.” The bell traveled around the country by train so citizens could see it. Now it rests in the Liberty Bell Center, where visitors view it up close and read about its past. The Liberty Bell reminds people that the work of liberty is not finished and belongs to every generation.
The Liberty Bell (950L)
Across from Independence Hall in Philadelphia stands a bell that no longer rings yet still speaks. Known today as the Liberty Bell, it began as a practical purchase. Pennsylvania’s colonial assembly ordered it from a foundry in London in 1751 to summon lawmakers and mark public events. When the bell arrived, it cracked during testing; two Philadelphia founders, John Pass and John Stow, recast it—hence the inscription near its crown, “Pass and Stow.” For decades the bell served as a working tool of government, its voice carrying across the city’s streets.
The bell’s most famous words, however, are cast into its waist: “Proclaim LIBERTY Throughout all the Land Unto all the Inhabitants Thereof.” The verse, from Leviticus, originally referred to jubilee and the release of debts. In the nineteenth century, reformers adopted the line as a call for a broader idea: liberty that included abolition and equal rights. Newspapers began to use the name “Liberty Bell,” and the object shifted from a town instrument into a national symbol.
Sometime in the early 1800s, a hairline fracture widened into the long crack visitors see today. The bell was fitted with a bolt to stabilize the metal, but by the late 1840s it was retired from ringing. Yet retirement did not mean obscurity. Custodians sent the bell on national tours by rail, where crowds gathered to see and touch it. Photographs and souvenirs—ink bottles shaped like the bell, paperweights, tiny replicas—multiplied its image in homes across the country. Each retelling added a layer to the legend: the flawed object that nevertheless carried a perfect message.
Today, the Liberty Bell rests in the glass-walled Liberty Bell Center. Visitors can stand close enough to read every letter and trace the famous crack with their eyes. Some are surprised that the bell is smaller than they expected; others notice how the metal shows wear at the lip, where it struck the yoke. Together, those details make an argument without words: symbols gain power not because they are flawless, but because people choose to carry their meanings forward. The Liberty Bell points beyond its own bronze to the unfinished task it names—liberty proclaimed “throughout all the land,” and for all who live there.