The Liberty Bell was originally called the State House Bell.
Pennsylvania's colonial assembly commissioned the bell in 1752 for the steeple of the Pennsylvania State House, now Independence Hall. Its inscription quotes Leviticus 25:10: “Proclaim LIBERTY Throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants Thereof.” The bell cracked after arriving and was recast twice by local founders John Pass and John Stow.
During the American Revolution, officials hid the bell in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to prevent British forces from melting it into ammunition. It returned to Philadelphia in 1778. The name Liberty Bell was not used during the Declaration's adoption in 1776; abolitionists popularized that name in the nineteenth century.
The familiar story that the bell rang on July 4, 1776, is a later legend. It may have rung when the Declaration was publicly read on July 8, but no contemporary record proves that it did.