At noon on a steamy summer day in 1950, a small crowd gathered in front of the District Building in Washington, DC, for a ceremony marking the presentation of an odd gift to the city: a full-size replica of Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell, albeit with the famous crack painted on.
The Treasury Department had commissioned scores of these replicas from a foundry in France to advertise a US savings-bond drive. Throughout the spring of 1950, the bells toured the country. One was then given as a thank-you to each of the states and territories.
They were unwieldy gifts, and in DC, no one really knew what to do with the thing. But over the decades, the Liberty Bell replica that no one had seemed to want became a local landmark of sorts.
And then, sometime between October 1979 and July 1981, the 2,080-pound symbol of freedom simply vanished.
role: Author outlet:Washingtonian publication date: March 2023 category:History
