The Independence Hall Association (IHA) was founded in 1942 to spearhead the creation of Independence National Historical Park, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1994, it created the website that today is called ushistory.org, with over 3 million page views monthly. The IHA is a nonprofit, independent facilitating organization. Its mission today is to educate the public about the Revolutionary and Colonial eras of American history, as well as Philadelphia generally.
The association was organized by Edwin O. Lewis, formerly a judge in the Common pleas court and at the time president of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, to advocate and coordinate preservation of Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, Carpenters' Hall, Christ Church and related colonial era buildings in downtown Philadelphia. Lewis was especially motivated by concerns (following the attack on Pearl Harbor) that the historic district was at risk in the event of an air raid or other such attack.
Famous quotes containing the words independence, hall and/or association:
“Hail, Columbia! happy land!
Hail, ye heroes! heaven-born band!
Who fought and bled in Freedom’s cause,
Who fought and bled in Freedom’s cause,
And when the storm of war was gone,
Enjoyed the peace your valor won.
Let independence be our boast,
Ever mindful what it cost;”
—Joseph Hopkinson (1770–1842)
“While there we heard the Indian fire his gun twice.... This sudden, loud, crashing noise in the still aisles of the forest, affected me like an insult to nature, or ill manners at any rate, as if you were to fire a gun in a hall or temple.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The spiritual kinship between Lincoln and Whitman was founded upon their Americanism, their essential Westernism. Whitman had grown up without much formal education; Lincoln had scarcely any education. One had become the notable poet of the day; one the orator of the Gettsyburg Address. It was inevitable that Whitman as a poet should turn with a feeling of kinship to Lincoln, and even without any association or contact feel that Lincoln was his.”
—Edgar Lee Masters (1869–1950)