Liberty Bell, large bell, a traditional symbol of U.S. freedom, commissioned in 1751 by the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly to hang in the new State House (renamed Independence Hall) in Philadelphia. It was cast in London by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, purchased for about £100, and delivered in August 1752.

The Bell achieved its iconic status when abolitionists adopted it as a symbol for the movement. It was first used in this association as a frontispiece to an 1837 edition of Liberty, published by the New York Anti-Slavery Society. It was, in fact, the abolitionists who gave it the name "Liberty Bell," in reference to its inscription.

Officials rang the bell on July 8, 1776, to announce the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence. During the American Revolution, patriots hid the bell from British soldiers. The British might have melted it down to make cannonballs. After the war, the bell went back to the assembly building—which was renamed Independence Hall.

The bell, known as the Liberty Bell, was to commemorate the fifty-year anniversary of William Penn 's 1701 Charter of Privileges, the state's original constitution. Penn wrote of the freedoms and rights valued by people all over the world.