The Liberty Bell arrived in Philadelphia in 1752, decades before the independence events remembered by America250.
Philadelphia’s provincial assembly ordered the bell in 1751 for the Pennsylvania State House, now known as Independence Hall. Robert Charles, the colony’s agent in London, purchased it from the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. The bell arrived in Philadelphia in August 1752, but it cracked during an early test strike.
Local founders John Pass and John Stow recast the bell in Philadelphia. Their first recasting produced an unsatisfactory sound, so they melted it down and cast it again. The inscription includes a quotation from Leviticus: “Proclaim LIBERTY Throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants Thereof.”
The bell was not called the Liberty Bell during the Revolution. That name became popular much later, especially in the nineteenth century, as Americans connected the object with liberty and independence. Its 1752 arrival therefore predates both the Declaration of Independence and the 1776 events commemorated by America250.