While the Liberty Bell is a well-known American icon today, it was not always so. It began service as an ill-sounding, Pennsylvania State-house chimer that rang to the tune of E-flat.
Residents didn't like the tone of the first bell, according to Phil Sheridan, a National Park Service spokesperson in Philadelphia. Two local craftsmen John Snow and John Pass offered to recast the Bell. "The second one, people liked," said Sheridan.
The Bell was not widely known by its present moniker until abolitionists adopted it as a symbol of the country's fractured unity at the time. The name "Liberty Bell" first appeared in an anti-slavery poem entitled, "The Liberty Bell," in the early 19th Century.
Liberty's New Location
Since its inception, the Bell has moved many times—including a transcontinental journey by train to San Francisco with numerous wayside stops in 1915.
Park Service staff said the Bell outgrew its present home.
"The only thing you can do in the [old facility] is see the Bell," said Sheridan. "This new facility will allow visitors a chance to spend time—to learn about the Liberty Bell, about the making of the Bell, about the symbols not only of liberty but the lack of liberty.
"The Liberty Bell is not only a symbol of people's freedom, but people looking for rights and freedom… It has now become an international symbol of freedom. What started out as just a bell in the State House of Pennsylvania has become an icon."
If all proceeds as planned, the Bell will move in October to the Liberty Bell Center on Independence Mall in Pennsylvania, just blocks away from the Bicentennial Pavilion—intact.
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