{"id":4006,"date":"2021-01-28T12:58:16","date_gmt":"2021-01-28T17:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/?p=4006"},"modified":"2021-01-28T12:58:16","modified_gmt":"2021-01-28T17:58:16","slug":"object-of-the-week-seton-hall-college-school-bell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/2021\/01\/object-of-the-week-seton-hall-college-school-bell\/","title":{"rendered":"Object of the Week: Seton Hall College School Bell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seton Hall College School Bell
\n<\/strong>1856
\nMeneely Bell Foundry
\nbronze
\nGift of the Seton Hall University Alumni Association
\n2019.14.0001
\nWalsh Gallery at Seton Hall University<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

WELCOME BACK FOR THE SPRING SEMESTER!<\/strong><\/p>\n

This mid-19th<\/sup> century bronze bell was originally located at the Seton Hall College campus in Madison, New Jersey. In the late 1960s, Dr. Louis de Crenascol, Chair of the Department of Art and Music, saw it for sale in an antique shop in nearby Summit.\u00a0 The bell was purchased through an arrangement between Dr. de Crenascol, Norbert Kubilus \u2013 President of the Society for the Preservation of Setonia\u2014and John L. Botti – Executive Secretary of the Alumni Association\u2014and brought to Seton Hall University where it hung in the McLaughlin Library until the building was razed in the 1990s to make way for Jubilee Hall.\u00a0 The bell then moved to the current Walsh Library and is presently on view in the Reading Room of the Department of Archives and Special Collections.[1]<\/a>\u00a0 The bell was manufactured by Meneely\u2019s of Troy, New York, a foundry which was known for making school bells of 100 pounds or more.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Bronze bells such as this one were commonly used in America from the 19th<\/sup> century until the mid-20th<\/sup> century and were rung to mark important times for students and teachers, such as to signal the beginning or end of the school day, classes or lunch breaks. They were intended to carry sound over a wide area in a world largely without clocks, wrist watches or cell phones to keep track of time.\u00a0 For this reason, bronze, with its resonant qualities, was the metal of choice.[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Today, the old bronze school bell has largely been displaced by electric buzzers, public address (P.A.) systems or music.[4]<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0You can hear what the Seton Hall College bell might sound like by listening to this sound sample of a similar Meneely Bell of the period below.[5]<\/a><\/p>\nhttp:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/files\/2021\/01\/meneely-bell.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

School house bells were often sold ready for installation, bundled with a frame, wheel and wood sills.\u00a0 If you look closely at the image of Seton Hall<\/p>\n

\"Diagram<\/a>
Figure 1. https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/cpbellfoundry\/_created\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

College\u2019s bell above, you will see horizontal arms that would have been attached to the frame to support the bell.\u00a0 Bells would be placed in the upper part of a belfry, or belltower, with a rope hung from the wheel. School bells were typically between 20 and 28 inches across to produce a slightly higher pitch than church bells which, would have been larger to peal with a deeper sound. This detail regarding size and tone was important.\u00a0 The public had to be able to distinguish between school, civic and church bells to avoid confusion.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

Church, clock and tower bells are also used to communicate with the public to commemorate important events such as the swearing in of an official or state leader, or religious rites including marriage and death.\u00a0 Bells are frequently associated with the concepts of peace and freedom, but they can also mark specific times on a clock or serve as a percussive musical<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a>
Image of mid-19th century schoolhouse with belfry in Maysville, Colorado. Courtesy of Jeffrey Beal, Colorado, USA. https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Maysville_School_(6287064191).jpg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

instrument.\u00a0 The earliest archaeological evidence of bells dates from the 3rd millennium B.C.E. in the Yang Shao culture of Neolithic China.[7]<\/a>\u00a0 Bells figure prominently in the public imagination, especially literary works.\u00a0 The Guardian has compiled a list of the 10 Best Bells in Literature<\/a>. The list includes stories such as Macbeth <\/em>by William Shakespeare, The Magician\u2019s Nephew <\/em>by C.S. Lewis, The Bells <\/em>by Edgar Allan Poe and Notre Dame de Paris <\/em>by Victor Hugo.\u00a0 Check out the full list to see how many you have read.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

The Walsh Gallery has a considerable collection of fine art, artifacts and archeological specimens for use by faculty, students and researchers.\u00a0For access to this or other objects in our collections, contact us at 973-275-2033 or <\/em>walshgallery@shu.edu<\/a> to make a research appointment.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Interview with Alan Delozier by Meghan Brady, 10\/08\/2020.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> https:\/\/antiques.lovetoknow.com\/collectibles\/antique-school-house-bells<\/a> accessed 1\/19\/2021<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bell#:~:text=The%20earliest%20archaeological%20evidence%20of,bells%20appear%20in%201000%20BC<\/a>. Accessed 1\/19\/2021<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/School_bell<\/a>, accessed 1\/19\/2021.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> http:\/\/www.brosamersbells.com\/hear.html<\/a>, accessed 1\/19\/2021.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> https:\/\/antiques.lovetoknow.com\/collectibles\/antique-school-house-bells<\/a>, accessed 1\/19\/2021.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bell#:~:text=The%20earliest%20archaeological%20evidence%20of,bells%20appear%20in%201000%20BC<\/a>, accessed 1\/19\/2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seton Hall College School Bell 1856 Meneely Bell Foundry bronze Gift of the Seton Hall University Alumni Association 2019.14.0001 Walsh Gallery at Seton Hall University   WELCOME BACK FOR THE SPRING SEMESTER! This mid-19th century bronze bell was originally located at the Seton Hall College campus in Madison, New Jersey. In the late 1960s, Dr. … Continue reading “Object of the Week: Seton Hall College School Bell”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3623,"featured_media":4007,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[307,308,306,130],"class_list":["post-4006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gallery","tag-bell","tag-meneely-bell-foundry","tag-seton-hall-college","tag-seton-hall-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4006"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4017,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4006\/revisions\/4017"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}