Unto all the Inhabitants Thereof

The Liberty Bell toured the country between 1885 and 1915, appearing at international expositions in New Orleans and San Francisco and cementing its role as an American icon. More and more promoters of products, new social ideas, and new freedom movements tried to link their causes to the Bell, producing images from the reverential to the absurd. Although the meanings of liberty continue to change, the Bell remains our preeminent contemporary emblem of the liberties inspired by William Penn's Charter of Privileges 300 years ago.

Photograph
[The Liberty Bell in Spokane, WA]
Photographer unknown, 1915
Henry Kuenzel Photograph Album

The Bell remained in Independence Hall until 1885, when it was placed on a train and sent to New Orleans for display at the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition. Between 1893 and 1904 the Liberty Bell visited Chicago, Atlanta, Charleston, Boston St. Louis, and many towns and cities in between. In 1915 the Bell made its last long-distance journey, to San Francisco and the Panama-Pacific Exposition.