The Liberty Bell Goes to War

At the 1915 San Francisco World's Fair

While I was growing up in San Francisco, one of my dad's fondest memories that he share with me was of viewing the Liberty Bell at the 1915 World's Fair. Later on, when I went to college and worked in Pennsylvania, I ran into some skeptical Philadelphians who doubted it would have been allowed to travel to the West Coast. It all turns out that the Liberty Bell's visit to the Golden Gate had a lot to do with the First World War. It's not too much of an exaggeration to say that America got a case of Liberty Bell Fever during those days. Smithsonian magazine provided much of this background on the story.

While popular, the Liberty Bell didn’t truly come of age as a national symbol until World War I. Its rise to glory began with a hastily organized train trip across the country in the summer of 1915 culminating in the stop in San Francisco, as President Wilson, former President Theodore Roosevelt, and other leaders felt the need to stir up patriotism after the sinking of the Lusitania, and the ensuing Preparedness Movement. It was the last long-distance trip by the bell due to concerns about enlarging its famous crack.

However, when America declared war, the Liberty Bell was officially called to the colors. The Treasury was having difficulty financing the war effort. Despite endless appearances by movie stars (who had previously considered explicit politicking taboo), 11,000 billboards, streetcar ads in 3,200 cities and towns, and fliers dropped from planes, bond sales lagged. Treasury Secretary William McAdoo, who also happened to be the son-in-law of President Woodrow Wilson, needed some kind of national loyalty miracle. So he and his propaganda advisers, the Committee on Public Information, who had produced a series of clever posters (the Statue of Liberty using a phone, Uncle Sam carrying a rifle), decided to take one of their most arresting images and bring it to life, no matter how risky.

25,000 Soldiers at Camp Dix, NJ, Form the Liberty Bell

They would actually ring the Liberty Bell. They would ring it even if it meant that the most emblematic crack in political history would split the rest of the way and leave a 2,080-pound pile of metal shards. And the moment after they rang the Liberty Bell, every other bell in the nation would be sounded, to signal a national flash mob to head to the bank and buy war bonds.

Philadelphia Mayor Thomas Smith tapped it first to announce the first war bond drive in June 1917, and the bell’s image subsequently appeared in countless posters advertising Liberty Bonds, which citizens were encouraged to buy to help pay for the war. Despite the concerns for the bell's integrity, it was transported to other sites for ceremonial ringings three other times during the war. The Liberty Bell was now a substantial part of the war effort, and Americans embraced it as national symbol as never before. Songwriters Joe Goodwin and Halsey K. Moore composed “Liberty Bell—It’s Time to Ring Again,” and their song reached the Top Five in 1918.

During and after the war, Allied leaders visited the bell, including the King and Queen of Belgium and Field Marshal Joseph Joffre of France, who said little but kissed the bell on his 1917 stop in Philadelphia. General John J. Pershing visited the bell on 12 September 1919, and was presented with a small golden Liberty Bell in recognition of his leadership of American armies in the world war.

General Pershing on a Visit

One hundred years later, the Liberty Bell returned to duty. The World War I Centennial Commission and the National Park Service designated  the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia as the Honorary Bell of Peace to commemorate the Centennial of the Armistice which was held on 11 November, as part of the Commission's nationwide Bells of Peace project.