The Liberty Bell

From Commodity to Sacred Object

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2391377
AutoresRobey Callahan (University of Pennsylvania, autor de correspondencia)
Año1999
Volumen4
Número1
Páginas57-78
Fecha de publicación1999-03-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Material Culture (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1359-1835 • E-ISSN: 1460-3586
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/135918359900400104
OpenAlexW2114231053
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8
Referencias citadas3

The Liberty Bell stands today as one of the most prominent and widely recognized symbols of America. As a cultural biography of this national artifact, this paper focuses on the four main media through which the Bell has over time gained the exposure needed for its consecration in the public mind. The media of presenting the Bell include (1) the changing ways in which it has been exhibited in Philadelphia for the public and (2) the many train journeys across the United States the Bell took from 1885 to 1915 to visit various industrial expositions. The media of representing the Bell include (3) the many mid- to late-19th-century mythic stories that portray it as a key figure in both the American Revolution and the early 19th-century antislavery movement in the United States and (4) the post-1876 growth of the use of its image in advertising and tourism

Archaeology · Art history · Artifact (error · Biography · Consecration · Political science · Sociology · Tourism · American History and Culture · Geographies of human-animal interactions · History · Law · Literature: history, themes, analysis