Category:Liberty Bell Shrine, Allentown, Pennsylvania

Liberty Bell Museum 

history museum in Allentown, Pennsylvania
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Instance of	museum
Location	Pennsylvania
Street address	622 W Hamilton St, Allentown, Pennsylvania, 18101
Inception	1962
official website
40° 36′ 08.28″ N, 75° 28′ 13.44″ W
Authority file  Q6541604 Library of Congress authority ID: sh90000821 National Library of Israel J9U ID: 987007546534005171 OpenStreetMap node ID: 4393570830 Reasonator Scholia Wikidocumentaries PetScan statistics WikiMap Locator tool KML file WikiShootMe OpenStreetMap Search depicted

The Liberty Bell Museum (also the Liberty Bell Shrine Museum) is a non-profit organization and museum located in Zion's United Church of Christ in Allentown. The shrine was founded in 1962 by Ralph H. Griesemer and Dr. Morgan D. Person.

The museum, based in the church in which the Liberty Bell was hidden during the American Revolutionary War, contains exhibits relating to the Liberty Bell and subjects including liberty, freedom, patriotism and local history. It also contains a full-size replica of the Liberty Bell, one of 55 replicas cast in France in 1950 for a United States Department of the Treasury savings bond promotion, which visitors are permitted to ring.

The backround behind the Liberty Bell Shrine goes back to 1777, after Washington's defeat at the Battle of Brandywine. Philadelphia, which served as our revolutionary capital was defenseless, and the city prepared for what was seen as an inevitable British attack on the city. The Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ordered that eleven bells, including the State House bell and the bells from Christ Church and St. Peter's Church, be taken down and removed from the city to prevent the British, who might melt the bells down to cast into cannons, from taking possession of them.

Subsequently, over 700 wagons guarded by 200 cavalry from North Carolina and Virginia left Philadelphia for Bethlehem. Hidden in the manure and hay were the bells, and hidden in the wagon of Northampton County militia private John Jacob Mickley was the State House bell. On September 18, the entourage and armed escort arrived in Richland Township (present-day Quakertown, Pennsylvania). On September 23 1777, the bishop of the Moravian Church in Bethlehem reported that the wagons had arrived, and all bells except the State House bell had been moved to Northampton-Towne (present-day Allentown).

The following day, the State House bell was transferred to the wagon of Frederick Leaser and taken to Zion's Church, where it was stored (along with the other bells), under the floorboards. On September 26, British forces marched into Philadelphia, unopposed, and occupied the city. The bell was restored to Philadelphia in June 1778, after the end of the British occupation.