Evenings with History – Selling America on Independence: The 1950 Savings Bond Drive and its Replica Liberty Bells

November 11, 2025 – Kristin Mann
Selling America on Independence: The 1950 Savings Bond Drive and its Replica Liberty Bells

Refreshments are served at 7:00 p.m., and the talk begins at 7:30 p.m

The Savings Bond Division of the U.S. Treasury Department launched an ambitious Independence Bond Drive in early 1950, choosing the Liberty Bell and the slogan “Save for your Independence” as its symbols. Savings bond personnel coordinated with the copper industry to fund exact reproductions of the Liberty Bell for each state and territory. Cast in France, shipped to the U.S., and then mounted by Navy personnel on specially-designed trucks, the bells toured each state from May 15 to July 4, 1950. Arkansas’s Replica Liberty Bell was incorporated into the Bicentennial Memorial at the Arkansas State Capitol in 1975. This talk examines what the Independence Bond Drive reveals about politics, economics, culture, and American identity.