Liberty Bell Replica
Arrived in Columbia June 4, 1950
Northeast side of State House
Installed July 4, 1950
Bell designed by American Smelting and Refining Company, Miami Copper Company, Phelps Dodge Corporation, The American Metal Company Ltd., Kennecott Copper Corporation, Anaconda Copper Mining Company
Installation built by Robert Sumwalt
Installation designed by Carroll Johnson
Current location
Installed 1973
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Liberty Bell replica, November 1970. Image courtesy Russell Maxey Photograph Collection, Richland Library
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Advertisement for the truck designed by Ford Motor Company. Reprinted from The State, June 4, 1950.
In 1950, the U.S. Treasury Department distributed full-scale replicas of the Liberty Bell (the famous crack is painted) to the country’s forty-eight states as part of its marketing campaign for Independence Savings Bonds. Postwar Americans revived the bell – and its home at Independence Hall in Philadelphia – as symbols of American freedom as Communism spread internationally. The bells toured each state in specially designed Ford trucks and continue to be displayed on the grounds of thirty-one state capitals, including South Carolina's.