What You Probably Never Noticed On The Liberty Bell
It contains an abbreviation
even older than “Philly”
The Liberty Bell
What many of us miss in plain sight is astounding.
I realized this one night recently … at a Zoom lecture and monthly meeting of the Association of Philadelphia Tour Guides.
The speaker referred to “Philada” — a word I’d never heard before. So I asked about it right away in Zoom’s Chat function.
A quick answer
A fellow guide, Dick Furstein, instantly said it was a common expression and even appears right on the Liberty Bell.
So right after the meeting, I pulled out a photo of the Liberty Bell. And there it was: “PHILADA with the final ‘A’ in superscript, or slightly smaller and raised.” That’s how the website answers.com describes it. And the word appears on the bell at least twice.
But often it’s just printed PHILADA or Philada.
PHILADA appears at least twice on the Liberty Bell. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, 2013. loc.gov/item/2019689165/.
And Philada shows up on a whole variety of items: military patches, pharmaceutical bottles manufactured in Philadelphia, mineral water bottles, paintings, Civil War tokens, clocks and medallions. There’s even a 26-foot multi-media law library in the Philadelphia Criminal Justice Center titled “Philada Book of Just Hours” … created in 1995.
Philada was used in the 17th and 18th centuries as “an archaic abbreviation for the modern city of Philadelphia,” says abbreviations.com. More recently, it says, ‘Philly’ is the common reference. That sent me searching for when “Philly” began being used.
Interesting Oddities
Douglas R. Harper, who started the Online Etymology Dictionary, says Philly is “the familiar or colloquial shortening of Philadelphia.” Philly also was the name of a popular ferry that began carrying passengers across the Delaware River between Camden and Philadelphia in 1858. The city baseball team called the Phillies was formed 1883. And the use of the word “Philly” was officially “attested” by 1890.
Philada has even been used as a person’s name. The oldest recorded birth of Philada is Dec. 9, 1900.
Ancestry.com lists 77 birth records and 164 immigrations records for Philada.
I certainly understand why someone would want to shorten “Philadelphia.” I know I use the abbreviation “Phila.” on most envelopes I hand-address. It saves a lot of time and energy. I just didn’t know “Philada” preceded “Philly.”
Fast Facts
Name: Philada
1751: The year the Liberty Bell, was ordered from London’s Whitechapel Bell Foundry. “Philada” appears at least twice on it.
1858: The year a popular ferry named Philly began operating in the Delaware River between Camden and Philadelphia.
1900: First year the Social Security Administration recorded the name “Philada” on a birth.
Some sources
Philadelphia Public Art@philart.net, https://www.names.org/n/philada/about#associations,
Online Etomology Dictionary, https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=philada