Considered as one of the most important independence icon of the United States of America, the Liberty Bell was one of the voices that called for all the inhabitants of the land to gather at the Pennsylvania State House (now known as the Independence Hall) and witness the reading of the declaration of independence on July 8, 1776, four days after its signing. A tale, that made the bell more famous, said that a bell-ringer rang the bell on July 4, 1776, upon hearing of the Second Continental Congress's vote for independence.

The bell arrived in Philadelphia in August 1752, with a quotation from Leviticus 25:10 engraved "Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof," through the order of the Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania. The bell was ordered from Thomas Lester of the London bell founding firm of Lester and Pack (now operating as the Whitechapel Bell Foundry) to be placed on the bell tower being built at that time on the Pennsylvania State House and more importantly to commemorate the 50th anniversary of William Penn's 1701 Charter of Privileges.

The Bell cracked when it was first rang six months after its arrival but was recast twice by two local foundry workers, John Pass and John Stow. It was fixed but cracked again and was recast again and the last crack it had was in 1846 when it was rang in honor of the birthday of George Washington and was never repaired again as evident today and became a part of its character.

The bell gained more importance as an icon when the abolitionist societies adopted the bell as a symbol for their movement first using it on the front page of the 1837 edition of Liberty, published by the New York Anti-Slavery Society. It was the abolitionists that gave it a name Liberty Bell based on its poem, The Liberty Bell.

The bell has travelled all over the United States to be featured on exhibitions and celebrations making a large number of stops along the way so that local people can view it and by 1885, the Liberty Bell was internationally recognized as a symbol of freedom. Today, the bell sits on its new home enclosed by a glass room with the Independence Hall in the background, in the Liberty Bell Center which opened in 2003. The Liberty Bell is rung 13 times every Fourth of July at 2pm Eastern time to honor the patriots from the original 13 states.