BGuthrie Photos: PA -- Philadelphia -- Independence NHP -- Liberty Bell

PA -- Philadelphia -- Independence NHP -- Liberty Bell:

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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[1] BELL_130414_001.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[2] BELL_130414_007.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[3] BELL_130414_012.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[4] BELL_130414_014.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[5] BELL_130414_026.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?) $"This inevitable relic of the Revolution... irreparably cracked..." -- The Public Ledger, 23 February 1846 The 2,000-pound State House bell was surprisingly fragile. The Bell, like other bells of the time, had inherent flaws; its unstable mix of metals made it brittle. The Bell first cracked soon after arriving in Philadelphia in 1752. The Pennsylvania Assembly twice hired local craftsmen, John Pass and John Stow, to recast it. After years of service, the Bell cracked again, sometime in the first half of the 19th century. Workers fixed it by drilling the hairline fracture to widen the crack, an accepted remedy. The repair worked only briefly. In 1846, when the crack extended, the city retired the Bell from active use. Several news accounts mention the Bell without any reference to damage until 1846, when the repaired Bell cracked again. * On September 3, 1824, Philadelphia's Democratic Press had a story about the bell, and quoted its inscription without mentioning any crack. * In 1829, The Casket described the State House. 'In the attic story of the basement of the steeple (the brick part) is suspended the great bell.' It quotes the inscription but does not mention a crack. * On June 30, 1841, City government agreed to let the young men of the city ring 'the old State House bell' on the Fourth of July. * The May 29, 1844, Public Ledger carried a story on the Bell, but did not mention any crack. 1753: On order from the Pennsylvania Assembly, John Pass and John Stow recast the new Bell after it cracked during testing. 1777: Patriots took the Bell out of the city of escape capture by the British Army when it occupied Philadelphia during the American Revolution. 1846: Workers repaired the Bell after it cracked sometime in the first half of the 19th century. The repair was only briefly successful, and the City retired the Bell from active service. 1852: Since it could no longer ring, the Bell was taken from the tower and displayed in a small museum in Independence Hall along with other valued historic objects. 1915: A "spider" installed inside the Bell kept the crack from spreading. 1976: The Bell moved to a new building designed to handle large crowds. 2003: This carefully designed building follows earlier efforts to protect, preserve and display the Liberty Bell.$
[6] BELL_130414_028.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[7] BELL_130414_034.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[8] BELL_130414_040.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[9] BELL_130414_046.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[10] BELL_130414_057.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)
[11] BELL_130414_063.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[12] BELL_130414_073.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[13] BELL_130414_083.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[14] BELL_130414_097.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[15] BELL_130414_112.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)
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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. BELL_130414_001.JPG: "Let the Bell be cast by the best workmen..." -- Isaac Norris to Robert Charles, October 17, 1751
2. BELL_130414_007.JPG: "Proclaim Liberty throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof" -- Inscription on the Liberty Bell, from Leviticus XXV, v10, The Bible The Liberty Bell is a symbol of the American Revolution. It is a symbol of liberties gained and a reminder of liberties denied. * It is a relic of the nation's beginning. * It has inspired and challenged visitors, especially in times of crisis. * Its outline, familiar throughout the world, conveys the idea of the continuing expansion of liberty to new peoples and into new aspects of life.
3. BELL_130414_012.JPG: "This inevitable relic of the Revolution... irreparably cracked..." -- The Public Ledger, 23 February 1846
4. BELL_130414_014.JPG: Two preservation attempts are evident in this interior view of the Bell. Drill marks extend along the length of what had been a nail-line crack. A metal "spider," installed in 1915, supports and stabilizes the Bell.
5. BELL_130414_026.JPG: "This inevitable relic of the Revolution... irreparably cracked..." -- The Public Ledger, 23 February 1846 The 2,000-pound State House bell was surprisingly fragile. The Bell, like other bells of the time, had inherent flaws; its unstable mix of metals made it brittle. The Bell first cracked soon after arriving in Philadelphia in 1752. The Pennsylvania Assembly twice hired local craftsmen, John Pass and John Stow, to recast it. After years of service, the Bell cracked again, sometime in the first half of the 19th century. Workers fixed it by drilling the hairline fracture to widen the crack, an accepted remedy. The repair worked only briefly. In 1846, when the crack extended, the city retired the Bell from active use. Several news accounts mention the Bell without any reference to damage until 1846, when the repaired Bell cracked again. * On September 3, 1824, Philadelphia's Democratic Press had a story about the bell, and quoted its inscription without mentioning any crack. * In 1829, The Casket described the State House. 'In the attic story of the basement of the steeple (the brick part) is suspended the great bell.' It quotes the inscription but does not mention a crack. * On June 30, 1841, City government agreed to let the young men of the city ring 'the old State House bell' on the Fourth of July. * The May 29, 1844, Public Ledger carried a story on the Bell, but did not mention any crack. 1753: On order from the Pennsylvania Assembly, John Pass and John Stow recast the new Bell after it cracked during testing. 1777: Patriots took the Bell out of the city of escape capture by the British Army when it occupied Philadelphia during the American Revolution. 1846: Workers repaired the Bell after it cracked sometime in the first half of the 19th century. The repair was only briefly successful, and the City retired the Bell from active service. 1852: Since it could no longer ring, the Bell was taken from the tower and displayed in a small museum in Independence Hall along with other valued historic objects. 1915: A "spider" installed inside the Bell kept the crack from spreading. 1976: The Bell moved to a new building designed to handle large crowds. 2003: This carefully designed building follows earlier efforts to protect, preserve and display the Liberty Bell.
6. BELL_130414_034.JPG: "In Penn's Fair City, calm and grace Hangs the old Bell which rings no more For Freedom sleeps on Freedom's Shore." -- Caroline Weston, "St. Denis," The Liberty Bell, 1849
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Wikipedia Description: Liberty Bell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Liberty Bell, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is an American bell of great historic significance. The Liberty Bell is one of the most prominent symbols associated with the American Revolutionary War. It is one of the most familiar symbols of independence within the United States, and has been described as an international icon of liberty and justice for all.

According to tradition, its most famous ringing occurred on July 8, 1776, to summon citizens of Philadelphia for the reading of the Declaration of Independence. The bell had also been rung to announce the opening of the First Continental Congress in 1774 and after the Battle of Lexington and Concord in 1775. Historians today consider this highly doubtful, as the steeple in which the bell was hung had deteriorated significantly by that time.

The Liberty Bell was known as the "Independence Bell" or the "Old Yankee's Bell" until 1837, when it was adopted by the American Anti-Slavery Society as a symbol of the abolitionist movement.

Inscription:

The inscription on the Liberty Bell reads as follows:
“ Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof Lev. XXV X

By Order of the ASSEMBLY of the Province of PENSYLVANIA for the State House in Philada
Pass and Stow
Philada
MDCCLIII
”

The source of the inscription is Leviticus 25:10, which reads "And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family." The inscription was intended to mark the 50th anniversary of William Penn's Charter of Privileges of 1701.

18th century history:

Ordering of the bell from the Whitechapel Bell Foundry and first crack:

The bell was ordered in 1745 by the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly for use in the Pennsylvania State House (now known as ...More...
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Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: [American Revolution] [History 1700s (excl wars)] [Park (National Park Service)]
2013 photos: Trips this year: three Civil War Trust conferences (Memphis, TN, Jackson, MS [to which I added a week to to visit sites in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee], and Richmond, VA), and my 8th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including sites in Nevada and California). Ego Strokes: Aviva Kempner used my photo of her as her author photo in Larry Ruttman's "American Jews & America's Game: Voices of a Growing Legacy in Baseball" book. Equipment this year: I mostly used my Fuji XS-1 camera but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000 and Nikon D600. Number of photos taken this year: just over 570,000.
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