The Liberty Bell

Abstract

The Liberty Bell stands today as one of the most prominent and widely recognized symbols of America. As a cultural biography of this national artifact, this paper focuses on the four main media through which the Bell has over time gained the exposure needed for its consecration in the public mind. The media of presenting the Bell include (1) the changing ways in which it has been exhibited in Philadelphia for the public and (2) the many train journeys across the United States the Bell took from 1885 to 1915 to visit various industrial expositions. The media of representing the Bell include (3) the many mid- to late-19th-century mythic stories that portray it as a key figure in both the American Revolution and the early 19th-century antislavery movement in the United States and (4) the post-1876 growth of the use of its image in advertising and tourism.