This week’s additions to our document collections highlight the meaning of Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell during the nineteenth century:
- Officials from Boston and Philadelphia exchanged welcoming speeches in the Hall of Independence in 1854, when the Bostonians came to Philadelphia on a tour to inspect lunatic asylums. [link to document]
- Newspapers in New Orleans and Philadelphia had vastly different reactions to remarks by Jefferson Davis during the Liberty Bell’s travels to New Orleans in 1885. The illustration with these documents presents the Liberty Bell as a symbol of meaning for African Americans who had experienced slavery. [link to documents]