The Experience
The Liberty Bell has a new home, and it is as powerful and dramatic as the Bell itself. Throughout the expansive, light-filled Center, larger-than-life historic documents and graphic images explore the facts and the myths surrounding the Bell. X-rays give an insider’s view, literally, of the Bell’s crack and inner-workings. In quiet alcoves, a short History Channel film, available in English and eight other languages, traces how abolitionists, suffragists and other groups adopted the Bell as its symbol of freedom.
Other exhibits show how the Bell’s image was used on everything from ice cream molds to wind chimes. Keep your camera handy. Soaring glass walls offer dramatic and powerful views of both the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, just a few steps away.
History
The bell cracked soon after being cast in England. Pass and Stow, two men better known for making pots and pans, recast the bell. It cracked again. It was repaired again. From its perch in the tower of the Pennsylvania State House, it summoned colonists to hear the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence with its forceful peals. Half a century later, the Bell was permanently silenced by more fissures.