Liberty Bell Timeline
This is a chronological history of the Liberty Bell from when the bell was commissioned to the present. It was gathered from a variety of sources. Events are stated as factual if period documentation exists or all sources agree, otherwise the ambiguity in the historical record is identified.

The primary information sources are "The Liberty Bell: A Special History Study", by John Paige and "The Story of the Liberty Bell", by David Kimble.

1701

Charter of Privileges. William Penn issued the Charter of Privileges, which transferred legislative power from William Penn and the Proprietorship to the Assembly. Many historians believe this event was celebrated 50 years later by purchasing the original Liberty Bell.

1732

The State House (Independence Hall) was finished. Considered colonial America's grandest public building it later became home to the Liberty Bell.

1749

An addition to the State House was ordered to house a bell.

1751

The Pennsylvania Assembly issued an order for the bell.

1752

Order placed with London's Whitechapel Foundry. The cost was 150 Pounds 13 shillings 8 pence including insurance and shipping.

Isaac Norris, Assembly Speaker and the Chairman of the State House Superintendents asked the Assembly's agent in London, Robert Charles, to buy a bell.

Instructions in his November 1, 1751 letter to Robert Charles:

The full verse in Leviticus reads, "And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof."

Did the Bell commemorate the 1701 Charter of Privileges?
It's generally believed that the Assembly commemorated and celebrated the 50^th anniversary of the granting of these rights with the commissioning of the Bell.

However, Norris was known to oppose the Penn family. Also, why is the Bell inscribed with the date 1752 if intended to celebrate the 50^th anniversary (1751 would have been the 50th anniversary)? Did Norris recognize that the Bell would not arrive until 1752 and decide against "back dating" the inscription? Was the fiftieth anniversary of the Charter just a coincidence? The historical record is unclear.

July 1752

Bell shipped. Some accounts name the ship Myrtilla captained by Richard Budden as the one that delivered the bell from England. However, the Myrtilla did not land in Philadelphia until late September. The only ship arriving from London in August was the snow Hibernia, captained by William Child.

August 1752

Bell arrived sometime before September 1. The journey took 11 weeks in rough seas. On September 1, 1752 Norris wrote the following to Assembly Representative Robert Charles, "The Bell is come ashore & in good order." He continued, "we have not yet try'd the sound."

September
1752

Bell cracked. Several days after arriving the bell was setup in Independence Square to be tested and promptly cracked. Norris described the event in a letter to agent Charles:

A twist of fate changes the bell's destiny. The State House superintendents decided to send the bell back to England on Captain Richard Budden's ship the Myrtilla for recasting. However, Budden could not find room for the bell and left it on the dock in Philadelphia.

After a botched attempt to repair the bell, two local workmen offered to recast the bell. The State House superintendents judged them to fully capable. Norris wrote that "two Ingenious Workmen" had been hired to recast the bell. These workmen were John Pass and John Stow and their names are inscribed on the bell.

March
1753

Second-generation Bell completed. Cast from the metal of the original bell, an extra 1.5 oz. of copper was added for each pound of the bell. After the twenty day effort to raise the bell to belfry was complete on April 17, 1753, a big feast was served to the workmen in celebration.

However, most agreed its tone was less than pleasing. Isaac Norris noted that "they were so teized (teased) by the witicisms of the Town that they...will be very soon ready to make a second essay."

It's believed that excessive copper ruined the bell's tone.

First week of June
1753

The New York Mercury reported on June 11, 1753, "Last Week was raised and fix'd in the Statehouse Steeple, the new great Bell, cast here by Pass and Stow, weighing 2080 lbs." Master-builder Edmund Woolley built the steeple in March of 1753. He was a member of Philadelphia's Carpenters' Company and overseer of the original State House construction.

Pass and Stow charged slightly over 36 Pounds for the repair. According to their bill, the Bell weighed 2,081 pounds.

November
1753

A little disappointed. Not everyone was happy with the way this Bell sounded, among them Isaac Norris. He wrote to Robert Charles, "We got our Bell new cast here and it has been used some time but tho some are of opinion it will do, I Own I do not like it." Norris suggested sending the metal from the Bell to England to be recast.

March
1754

"Sister Bell" ordered. Agent Robert Charles ordered a new bell from Whitechapel. This bell later became known as the "Sister Bell" (also known as the "Province Bell").

May
1754

Assembly agrees to pay for new bell. The Assembly resolved to pay for the new Whitechapel bell (Sister Bell) while keeping the Pass and Stow (third-generation) bell.

When the Sister Bell arrived most agreed it sounded no better than Pass and Stow's recast Bell. The Pass and Stow Bell remained in the State House steeple and was given the honor of ringing for special events.

The new Whitechapel bell was hung in a cupola on the State House roof and was attached to the State House clocks. This bell was given the more mundane job of ringing time for Philadelphians.

Fate of the Sister Bell
In 1821, Philadelphia bought an new bell for the clocks at both ends of the State House. Then in late 1828, during renovations of Independence Hall, city officials arranged a permanent load allowing the Sister Bell and clock to be transferred from Independence Hall to Olde St. Augustine's Church.

The Nativist American movement of the 1840s was characterized by religious intolerance, anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic sympathies, and civil unrest. A riot broke out on May 8, 1844 and St. Augustine's church was burned to the ground, destroying the historic Sister Bell. Today a smaller bell cast from its remains resides in Falvey Memorial Library at Villanova University in a suburb of Philadelphia (for more on St. Augustine's Church).

July 4
1776

Bell did not ring. Contrary to popular belief, the Liberty Bell did not ring on July 4, 1776 for the Declaration of Independence. Although the Declaration is dated July 4, 1776, on that day the Declaration was sent to the printer.

July 8
1776

Bell announces Declaration of Independence. The Bell tolled at the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence to the accompaniment of many other bells throughout the city. Some historians note that the steeple was in bad condition and that perhaps the Liberty Bell did not toll this day. Lacking any record of a replacement bell or measures taken to find an alternate way to ring major events, its fairly certain that the Liberty Bell rang for this event.

September
1777

Bell moved to Allentown PA. Revolutionary War descended on Philadelphia. The British had won the Battle of Brandywine on September 11 and were advancing to Philadelphia. Philadelphians hid or moved anything the British might use, including bells (which could be recast into cannons). On September 23, the State House Bell was taken down and hidden in the basement of the Zion Reformed Church in Allentown (which you can visit today). On its journey, the Bell was guarded by Colonel William Polk of North Carolina who was in command of 200 North Carolina and Virginia militiaman.

June 27
1778

Brought back to Philadelphia, placed in storage. The Bell was brought back to Philadelphia but not re-hung since the steeple was in disrepair. It is believed the Bell was stored in one of the munition sheds adjacent to the State House for seven years.

1785

Moved back to the State House. The Bell was reinstalled in a restored State House steeple.

1828

Confusion over ownership. A chain of events started in this year that led to confusion about the Liberty Bell's true owner for years to come. On February 7, a committee was formed reconstruct the decaying State House tower and install a new clock and bell in that structure.

Local foundry owner John Wilbank submitted the following proprosal oon Feb. 20, "...I will cast a bell of any weight, or nearly so... and I will give four hundred dollars for the bell that the Bell that the clock now stikes upon."

The council ordered a 4,000 pound bell for $1400 ($1800 - $400 for the former clock bell, which Wilbank was allowed to keep). The steeple was completed by July 4 and Wilbank's bell was installed on September 11. However, due to its poor tone, Wilbank made a second bell that was installed December 27 and rang on the 30th.

The Wilbank bell took over as the "State House Bell" while the Liberty Bell remained on the fourth floor (in the brick section) of the reconstructed tower - ringing it was reserved for special occasions. The bell that was installed as a clock bell in 1821 (the one that replaced the "Sister Bell" when it was moved to St. Augustine's Church) disappeared. It's assumed that Wilbank took it as part of his payment.

Sixty years later, Wilbank's son, claimed they never got the clock bell. He claimed the Pass and Stow bell and insisted the city of Philadelphia return the bell to his family. Since, the 1821 clock bell disappeared without a trace, Wilbank probably did take it. Even if he did not, however, the Pass and Stow bell (Liberty Bell) was never part of the deal.

In 1984, a Wilbank heir named James McCloskey claimed the Bell for himself, noting that it had moved to a pavilion a block north of Independence Hall. He claimed that he wanted to display it in his hometown of Baltimore, or barring that, meltdown the Bell "and make seven million rings -- all cracked -- and sell them for $39.95 each." Needless to say his claim was dismissed.

1828

Cracked? Rung to celebrate the Catholic Emancipation Act. A newspaper article from 1914 claims the Bell cracked on this occasion. However the 1828 press did not support this story. Written nearly 90 years after the event, this claim is questionable..

1835

Cracked? In an interview in the Sunday New York Times of July 16, 1911, Emmanuel Rauch claimed that at age 10, he and some other boys were invited to ring the Bell in honor of Washington's Birthday. After about a dozen tolls, the tone changed and they discovered a hairline crack over a foot long. There was no mention in the contemporary press that the bell cracked at that time, however.

July 8,
1835

Cracked? Tolled at the death of John Marshall. Years later on March 9, 1876, volunteer curator of Independence Hall - Col. Frank Etting - announced that the bell cracked on this occassion. Although this date is the most widely accepted, no documentation has ever been found to support this claim. As with other claims this one occurs over 41 years after the fact and is the earliest known mention of this hypothesis.

1839

Called "Liberty Bell" for the first time.
For its first 75 years the bell was simply known as the "State House Bell". From 1828 (when it was replaced by the 4000 pound Wilbank bell) to 1893 it had several different monikers, these are listed below.

 

Bell Names	Known dates when used
State House Bell	1752-1828
Old State House Bell	1852
Old Independence Bell	1846, 1854
Old Bell	1848,1854,1877,1884
Bell of Independence	1848
Old Liberty Bell	1877
Liberty Bell	1839-1893 exclusively used:1893-present

Not until 1839, at 86 years old, was it first called the "Liberty Bell" in a national publication. This first published reference to the bell with its now famous name was in a pamphlet from the Friends of Freedom, a Boston abolitionist organization.

The pamphlet contained a poem "suggested by the inscription on the Philadelphia Liberty Bell". It argued for the abolition of slavery ending with "Liberty through the land, to all its sons proclaiming." This publication was sold at the Anti-slavery Fair in Massachusetts in November. "The Liberty Bell" poem was reprinted on November 22, 1839 by the nationally recognized paper The Liberator.

Just before that on November 8, 1939 another poem titled "The Liberty Bell" by George Kent was published by the same newspaper. Kent's poem showed the bell tolling for American freedom in support of the abolishment of slavery for American blacks.

It wasn't until 1893, however, that the new name was universally used.

Feb. 12
1846

Fix the Bell for Washington's birthday.
Fix it? when did it break? There is no unanimous aggreement when the first crack appeared (see when the Liberty Bell cracked?).

On this day the Common Council and Select Council requested that the "Independence Bell" be repaired for ringing on George Washington's birthday - February 22.

The work was performed by bell hanger Henry Stone of 79 South Fifth Street. William Eckel, Superintendent of the State House, supervised the operation and had at least one small bell make from its filings.

Most significantly, this operation resulted in the bell's trademark feature - the visible "crack" that we see today. Of coarse, this crack is also the Liberty Bell's greatest misconception, that is, the crack that we see is not a crack at all. Its a machined slot approximately 1/2 inches wide and 24.5 inches long. The actual crack was a "hairline" and could not be seen except by closeup inspection. Two rivets were inserted in this slot to control the vibration of the two sides and restored the bell's tonal quality, at least temporarily.

Feb. 22
1846

"The old Independence Bell rang its last clear note on Monday last in honor of the birthday of Washington and now hangs in the great city steeple irreparably cracked and dumb. It had been cracked before but was set in order of that day by having the edges of the fracture filed so as not to vibrate against each other ... It gave out clear notes and loud, and appeared to be in excellent condition until noon, when it received a sort of compound fracture in a zig-zag direction through one of its sides which put it completely out of tune and left it a mere wreck of what it was."

The "zig-zag" fracture mentioned above extended the crack from the top of the machined slot (the end of the original crack) to the top the bell. It was now beyond repair.

1852

Move to Independence Hall - its home for the next 114 years. The Bell was brought down from the steeple and placed in "Declaration Chamber" of Independence Hall.

1876

Centennial Exposition. Displayed at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia

1915

Panama-Pacific Exposition. Bell traveled to San Francisco for the Panama-Pacific Exposition (see photo essay)

1976

Moved to Liberty Pavilion - its current home. Celebrating America's Bicentennial, the Liberty Ball was moved from Independence Hall to a specially built pavilion across the street on Independence Mall. The Pavilion allows visitors to view the Bell at any time of day. It was designed by Mitchell/Giurgola and Associates.