Insights

The National Bell Festival has been thrilled to collaborate with the congregation of Georgetown Lutheran Church and the historic bell restoration specialists at B.A. Sunderlin Bellfoundry to bring new life to a rusty old bell. For decades, the bell has sat behind a few crumpled boxes, lauded for its history, but neglected in its care. 

When in the course of bell restoration, it becomes necessary for one bell to dissolve the bands which have connected it to the foundry, and to assume among the bells of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle it, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that it should declare the causes which impel it to the restoration. 

We had some very special help this New Year’s Day during our bicentennial tribute to Harriet Tubman at the Military Women’s Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. We were joined by seven incredible women Veterans representing the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, and Marines. Each impeccably credentialed, together they represent decades of selfless service and sacrifice to our nation. We were humbled by their warm and generous participation in our program.

Ernestine “Tina” Martin Wyatt is a mother, grandmother, educator, nurse, artist…and great-great-great-grandniece of Harriet Tubman. Connected through her great-great-grandmother, Ann Marie Stewart (the daughter of Ms. Tubman’s sister Soph), Ms. Wyatt has become a champion for the legacy of her forebear. She has spearheaded Harriet Tubman Day in Washington, D.C., to preserve the memory and study of the abolitionist, while also campaigning for the inclusion of Ms. Tubman’s portrait on the twenty-dollar bill.
 

James Bond is back in the newly-released film, “No Time to Die” (2021), which packs all the punch of a classic 007 flick: flashy cars, sultry lovers, maniacal villains, and non-stop action. Daniel Craig reprises the role for his fifth and final turn in the tuxedo and we simply loved the more romantic and emotional nuance to the character. But this isn’t a critical movie review. We’re here to answer the burning question on everyone’s minds: What about those bells?

In 1833, Arthur Henry Hallam died in Vienna of cerebral hemorrhage at the tender age of twenty-two. His life and death might have been forgotten to history, were it not for his Cambridge friend and Queen Victoria’s beloved Poet Laureate: Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

As World War II ravaged from east to west in late 1941, Sir Winston Churchill, then serving as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, ordered a small delegation of fast ships and an aircraft carrier to deter expected Japanese aggression off the coasts of Singapore and Malaya. The United States was reeling from the recent attack on Pearl Harbor. Imperial Japanese aircraft were proving to be meddlesome and deadly in the Pacific theater. Perhaps these ships could help.

Where do you go to hear bells ring? If you’re at Washington National Cathedral, the walled Bishop’s Garden is the best place to experience the tintinnabulation. That’s where we found ourselves last Sunday morning, amiably wandering among the roses, boxwood, and splashes of seasonal color, when we met Mark Fitzpatrick. At the National Bell Festival, we’ll find any excuse to talk about bells, so with ringing cascading down from overhead, we invited Mark into the tower to see the bells up close.

Today, a shout rises from the Plaza de la Constitución (commonly called the Zócalo), beneath the balcony of the National Palace in México City. ¡Viva México! Over half a million spectators join in the cry. It is the start of México’s independence celebrations and, like any good event, it features the ringing of a bell.

In the autumn of 1984, a French minesweeper scouring the English Channel happened upon a most curious discovery: the wreckage of a Civil War-era commerce raider belonging to the Confederate States of America. How did this vessel come to lay a mere seven nautical miles off the coast of Cherbourg, France, and what pieces of history did the shallow waters preserve?