Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of I Heart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff Lauren boge bam here. Throughout its long life,
Speaker 1: the Liberty Bell has served as an example of just
Speaker 1: how vague are collective memories can be. Starting with the
Speaker 1: bell's famous crack. Historians have theories, but in short, no
Speaker 1: one knows precisely when or why the bell was damaged.
Speaker 1: It wasn't even called the Liberty Bell until long after
Speaker 1: it was hung. When it was first introduced in seventeen
Speaker 1: fifty one, it was called the State House Bell because
Speaker 1: it was created for the steeple of the Pennsylvania State
Speaker 1: House in Philadelphia. The Liberty Bell nickname came much later,
Speaker 1: around eighteen thirty nine, when abolitionists leveraged the bell as
Speaker 1: a symbol in their fight against slavery. Throughout American history,
Speaker 1: the bell has been used in the service of many
Speaker 1: different causes, but initially it was just a bell. It
Speaker 1: was commissioned by the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly, and it arrived
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia in September of seventeen fifty two after being
Speaker 1: cast by Lester and Pack, later renamed the Whitechapel Foundry
Speaker 1: in London. It was inscribed with the words proclaim liberty
Speaker 1: throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof biblical
Speaker 1: reference from Leviticus. And it is a really big bell,
Speaker 1: measured three ft high with a circumference of twelve feet
Speaker 1: at the bottom lip that's about a meter by three
Speaker 1: and a half meters, Made of around seventy copper and
Speaker 1: ten it tips the scales at nearly two thousand, one
Speaker 1: hundred pounds or nine d and fifty kilos. Once installed,
Speaker 1: the bell was used to alert citizens to urgent news,
Speaker 1: to summon lawmakers to the state House for important business,
Speaker 1: and as part of funeral ceremonies. Although historians disagree on
Speaker 1: when the bell cracked, most believed that the crack happened
Speaker 1: almost immediately after the bell's initial use in seventeen fifty two,
Speaker 1: whereupon local shows jumped into action. We spoke via email
Speaker 1: with Stephen Freed, a journalist, historian, and author who teaches
Speaker 1: at Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania. He said
Speaker 1: a replacement bell was ordered immediately from England, but in
Speaker 1: the meantime, local founders John Pass and John Stowe melted
Speaker 1: down the busted original, added some metal of their own,
Speaker 1: and made a copy. That copy is what we know
Speaker 1: as the Liberty Bell, but the foundry in England also
Speaker 1: sent a replacement, and both hung in the new State
Speaker 1: House Tower. At the State House, the bell was witnessed
Speaker 1: to some of America's most powerful history. It's all gatherings
Speaker 1: of the Second Continental Congress, as well as countless meetings
Speaker 1: that sparked the Revolutionary War. In seventeen seventy seven, as
Speaker 1: the British army threatened the city, locals removed the bell
Speaker 1: for fear of it being captured and melted from munitions.
Speaker 1: It was hidden under the floorboards of a church in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: In it was raised again, but the bell didn't hold
Speaker 1: any particularly symbolic importance until eighteen twenty four, when the
Speaker 1: Marquis de Lafayette, the last surviving French general of the Revolution,
Speaker 1: went on a year long public victory tour of all
Speaker 1: twenty four states in the Union. With that grand visit,
Speaker 1: America saw a resurgence in its national pride. Freed said,
Speaker 1: the nation first started taking its history seriously, and during
Speaker 1: his tour, they started calling the building Independence Hall and
Speaker 1: realizing its importance. Along with the importance of the bell,
Speaker 1: it wasn't until a decade later that the bell's famous
Speaker 1: nickname took hold. Freed explained it began being called Liberty
Speaker 1: Bell in eighteen thirty five, when the phrase first appeared
Speaker 1: at a pamphlet published by the New York Anti Slavery
Speaker 1: Society as the title of a rant about the bell
Speaker 1: never peeling for African Americans. Some historians think that the
Speaker 1: newer bell was damaged in eighteen thirty five, when it
Speaker 1: was wrong to mark the death of the then Chief
Speaker 1: Justice of the United States, John Marshall. Others believed the
Speaker 1: damage occurred in the early eighteen forties, either during the
Speaker 1: celebration of the fourth of July or of George Washington's
Speaker 1: birthday on February. The crack might have come about from
Speaker 1: ninety years of hard use, or it might have been
Speaker 1: due to the metallic composition of the bell. In Nive
Speaker 1: Researchers at the Winter Third Museum took a closer look
Speaker 1: at the bell's makeup using X ray florescent spectroscopy and
Speaker 1: determined that its high tin content resulted in a brittle
Speaker 1: composition that was prone to cracking. In any case, crack
Speaker 1: it did, But in eighteen forty six, the people were
Speaker 1: again determined to ring the bell for Washington's birthday, so
Speaker 1: they set about making repairs using a method called stop drilling.
Speaker 1: They actually widened the crack, which is now twenty one
Speaker 1: inches long and nearly an inch wide, which is about
Speaker 1: half a meter by two centimeters, so that when the
Speaker 1: bell was rung, the sides of the crack wouldn't much.
Speaker 1: If they could touch, they'd vibrate against each other and
Speaker 1: generate a terrible buzzing sound. But the repair wasn't successful.
Speaker 1: Another crack developed and the bell sounded no more, but
Speaker 1: that didn't mean it disappeared quietly. In the late eighteen
Speaker 1: and early nineteen hundreds, the bell went on occasional national tours.
Speaker 1: In nineteen fifteen, politicians decided to hold a ceremonial ringing
Speaker 1: of the broken bell in hopes of drumming up support
Speaker 1: for World War One. It wasn't wrung technically, but tapped
Speaker 1: with a mallet. That led to the bell becoming a
Speaker 1: symbol of the immense fundraising effort for the war in
Speaker 1: the form of buying liberty bonds. In nineteen seventeen and
Speaker 1: nineteen eighteen, it was also sent on a national railroad
Speaker 1: tour with a new fangled lighting system that kept it
Speaker 1: illuminated each night on its journey aboard the Liberty Bell,
Speaker 1: special citizens flocked to see it. By some estimates, nearly
Speaker 1: a quarter of the entire country managed to set eyes
Speaker 1: on this symbol of freedom, and the Liberty Bond drives
Speaker 1: were a smashing success, raising billions of dollars in war
Speaker 1: bonds to help the Allied powers win the war. In
Speaker 1: two thousand three, the Liberty Bell Center at Independence Hall
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia opened, which is where the bell now resides.
Speaker 1: Over the decades, there have been numerous calls to repair
Speaker 1: it and make it whole, or even to melt it down,
Speaker 1: balance its composition, and then recast it to make it usable,
Speaker 1: but a representative for the National Park Service, which runs
Speaker 1: the center, said that fixing the bell would serve no
Speaker 1: purpose as the crack is its most recognizable feature, and furthermore,
Speaker 1: might be legally sticky as it's a historical artifact. Freed said,
Speaker 1: of these never attempted repair plans, all of them have
Speaker 1: been ridiculous because the bell is a more perfect symbol
Speaker 1: of our desire for a more perfect union than it
Speaker 1: would ever have been unbroken. The bell is the most enduring, powerful,
Speaker 1: yet approachable symbol of our country, even its crack, as
Speaker 1: part of our patriotic metaphorical landscape. He then recalled the
Speaker 1: lyrics from the song Anthem by the late Leonard Cohen,
Speaker 1: ring the bells that still can ring, forget your perfect offering.
Speaker 1: There is a crack in everything. That's how the light
Speaker 1: gets in. Today's episode was written by Nathan Chandler and
Speaker 1: produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots
Speaker 1: of topics that are exactly what they're cracked up to be,
Speaker 1: what is it how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff
Speaker 1: is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts
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