Myra Joy Fish, Age 11, Of Stanley, N.C., for her question:
Where did the liberty bell come from?
Other bells around the world are bigger, and many of them have been pealing their high notes and their low notes through several centuries. But to Americans, the best bell, the most beloved bell in all the world rests quietly in Philadelphia. There we may visit it and even touch it.
The story of our liberty bell began more than 200 years ago when our 13 original states were still colonies of England; the people of Pennsylvania ordered it to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their commonwealth. The big bell was cast by the foundry of Thomas Lister in Whitechapel, London. It was carried over the sea in a ship and arrived in Philadelphia in August, 1753.
At that time it was called the Province bell, and it was a beauty. It bore the date of its birth and the name of its foundry, and around the top of its crown a most suitable text from the bible was cast in letters of metal. Those words from the xxv chapter of Liviticus, verse 10, still announce their noble message from our liberty bell: proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants thereof.
The people of Pennsylvania had paid 16 English pounds, 100 shillings and five pennies for their bell, a price equal to about $300. Everything seemed perfect until the voice of the beautiful bell was tested, then it cracked. The foundry of Pass and Stow of Philadelphia undertook to melt it down and recast it, adding 4 ounces of copper to the original metal to make it less brittle.
The new bell was ready the following June; it bore the names of its new foundry, but its noble message was there as before. For more than three months its deep voice pealed forth many times. Then in September, 1753, it cracked again. Pass and Stow recast the bell for the last time.
The province bell was renamed the Liberty Bell when it boomed its welcome to the continental congress meeting in Philadelphia; it pealed its more joyful song on Luly 5, 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was read to the people; during the war of independence, the precious symbol of liberty was hidden in Allentown and returned home to Philadelphia on June 27, 1775.
Later it was taken to be viewed at various world fairs and expositions. The liberty bell has visited New Orleans and Chicago, Atlanta and Charleston, Boston St. Louis and San Francisco. Its present crack began when its great voice tolled the death of John Marshall, chief justice of the United States', on July 8, 1535.
The liberty bell is made of bronze, and its total weight is one ton, plus 50 pounds; it stands more than three feet tall, and the distance around the lip at its base is 12 feet. The clapper inside is more than three feet long, and the thickness of the metal varies from three inches at the lip to one and a quarter inches at the crown.