By the autumn of 1777, things were looking grim for the fledgling new nation.

Gen. William Howe’s redcoats outflanked Gen. George Washington’s Continentals along the Brandywine Battlefield on Sept. 11 and were marching ahead to occupy Philadelphia.

Anticipating the enemy occupation of the birthplace of the United States of America, patriots decided that the State House Bell and 10 other bells would be removed from the Philadelphia for safekeeping. They feared the British would melt them down into artillery and ammunition.

What became known as the Liberty Bell was hauled by wagon and found a hiding place under the floorboards of Allentown’s Zion Church until the British withdrew in 1778.

“We put this up as a pictorial timeline of the American Revolution from the 1760s and the growing discontent with England, all the way through to 1781, the last major battle at Yorktown,” says Lehigh Valley Heritage Museum Executive Director Dr. James Higgins about the museum’s exhibition celebrating the birth of the United States of America.

The exhibit is presented as part of LehighCounty250, which is part of America250PA, marking the United States’ Semiquincentennial celebrating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Paintings of notable people and events are complemented by giclee prints of historic milestones painted by Emanuel Leutze and other artists and contemporary painter Mort Künstler and others. Tying the artwork in the room together is a patriotic wall mural by Lehigh Valley artist Rosemary Geseck.

Mannequins in colonial garb stand as sentries over replicas of Colonial Era surgical tools, furniture and artifacts.

In a display commemorating the Liberty Bell’s clandestine visit to Allentown are mannequins depicting Kay Bagenstose and her late husband George, who participated in the 1976 Bicentennial six-day reenactment of the iconic bell’s historic journey. With faces closely resembling the pair of Lehigh Valley history buffs, the mannequins are dressed in the Colonial garb worn by the couple during the Bicentennial event.

Behind them is a display depicting the Liberty Bell’s journey to Allentown and a circa 1840s’ folk-art oil painting by an unknown artist showing the bell reaching its destination in front of Zion Church as it looked in 1777.

Many items in the exhibit have been in the museum’s collection for decades. Others were acquired in 2023 when the Liberty Bell Museum at the former Zion UCC Church along Hamilton Street closed. The state-owned Liberty Bell replica is still in the church basement as it is too massive to fit through a door.

“We put a large replica of that replica bell outside [of Zion UCC] for the 250th anniversary,” says Higgins. “People can visit it anytime of the day or night. It’s going to be one of the legacy gifts of the 2026 Semiquincentennial.”

A Lehrman Institute of American History installation greets visitors outside the main exhibit hall. “It’s designed to focus on an aspect of the Revolution. In this case, it’s the Declaration of Independence, what it has meant to the United States and for people and countries from around the world.”

He noted that the historic document is often referenced by activists championing civil rights for minorities, women’s rights and was even cited by Gandhi during India’s independence movement from British rule.

“We have been anticipating the 250th for several years now,” says Higgins. Set up in spring 2024, the exhibit will remain in the gallery for many more years. “Until 2033, we are going to have a series of 250th anniversaries,” Higgins says as he points out that the war for independence spanned 1775 - 1783.

A “250th Celebration” exhibit and program, including a 1 p.m. lecture on the “heroic war-time rescue of James Allen’s wife Elizabeth,” and a reading of the “Declaration of Independence” is 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. July 4.

“The American Revolution,” Lehigh Valley Heritage Museum, 432 W. Walnut St., Allentown. Gallery hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday - Saturday 610-435-1074; www.lehighcountyhistoricalsociety.org