Acknowledgments I have encountered many helpful people in the process of research and writing this book. I owe special thanks to the following: Karie Diethorn, Chief Curator at In de pen dence National Historical Park, for help in locating a critical resource Tyler Love, Archivist and Library Manager at the Independence National His- torical Park, for helping to arrange a visit and locate relevant information in the archives Robert Giannini, Associate Curator, In de pen dence National Historical Park, for locating valuable information and answering queries Tim Verdin and Pat Bradley of the Verdin Bell Company in Cincinnati, Ohio Jim Lewis, with the Park Ser vice at the Stones River Battlefield National Park in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, for help in locating a critical resource Pam Middleton, at the Middle Tennessee State University Inter-Library Loan Office, for ordering numerous outside resources, and Sharan Parente, at the Refer- ence Desk, for helping with queries Dr. Mary Evins of Middle Tennessee State University, for referring me to an important index Professor Charlene Mires, at Rutgers University at Camden, for answering a query Dr. Philip Phillips, Associate Dean of the Honors College, and Carolle Morini, at the Boston Athenaeum, for helping me to track down the identity of a nineteenth- century poet Professor Miles Orvell, Professor of English and American Studies at Temple University, for providing helpful information regarding a source Rachel K. Morris, of the Middle Tennessee State University Center for Popu lar Music, for helping me to locate sheet music and images of the Liberty Bell Linda C. Vile, who faithfully accompanied me to the Independence National His- torical Park and helped complete the chart documenting cities and towns that the Liberty Bell visited Morgan Murphy and Susan Lyons, who helped with format- ting this manuscript, and Jeffrey Summers, who helped retrieve information from the Internet. Although I have never met them, I owe special thanks to John C. Paige and David C. Kimball, who wrote and edited The Liberty Bell: A Special Study, respec- tively to Gary B. Nash, who wrote The Liberty Bell and to Victor Rosewater,