When some French exchange students told us they had been shown three Philadelphia sites - the Liberty Bell, the Betsy Ross house and Independence Hall - my wife let out a little groan.  A former tour guide, she knew what their reactions would be.  Independence Hall was, of course, worthwhile.  The other two, they said, were stupid.

  For the visitors, these were minor disappointments. Still, with all that is important and authentic among the historical treasures of Philadelphia, it is embarrassing to be reminded that our two most popular tourist attractions are essentially trivial and fake.

  For starters, the Betsy Ross house is probably not the Betsy Ross house.  Due to a change in the street numbering, alas belatedly discovered, the real house most likely sat next to the current one and was mistakenly demolished.  Oops.

  In addition to this gaffe, which the Betsy Ross house prefers to keep to itself, the story that Betsy Ross made the first flag is itself only legend, a detail about which the management is only slightly more candid.  The prominent historian Daniel J. Boorstin wrote: “The Betsy Ross legend can be traced to her grandson who recounted the family tradition...in 1870, but it has no substantial foundation in history.”

  As for the Liberty Bell, it is of course a real bell and the bell that really hung in the State House.  But while it is linked in the national imagination with the Declaration of Independence, no contemporary Philadelphian, however poetic, would have given it a thought and there is no evidence that it ever rang to proclaim the signing.  Again Boorstin: “John Adams did report... that the Chimers of ...Christ Church chimed away after the reading of the Declaration, but neither he nor anybody else mentioned the ringing of the bell in the Statehouse.”  Its peeling at the signing was imagined in various stories that date from the 1840's.

  Both of these legends, Betsy and the Bell, are genuinely interesting in some ways, but not in the ways they are presented to the tourist.  The house, presented as a shrine, ought to be more properly valued as a nicely restored colonial dwelling. Betsy Ross, first flag-maker or not, demonstrates the unprecedented tolerance and laissez-faire economy of Quaker Philadelphia.

  For its part, the Bell’s importance has nothing to do with Revolutionary America.  It was commissioned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Penn’s Charter of Privileges, (an overlooked and radically liberal document) and then became famous as an icon of the Abolitionist movement in the mid 19th century.  Over time, the Bell then settled, like the eagle, into the Pantheon of permanent, if vague, national symbols.  It found its way onto coins and sports team jerseys and into the young minds of the boomer generation by way of the Davy Crockett song, whose lyric credited him with patching up the crack.

  It is awkward to admit it at this point, but Betsy and the Bell are probably most interesting because they are ersatz.  That is, they demonstrate a young nation’s need for myths and symbols to unify a disparate federation.  In this light, Betsy and the Bell honestly reflect the insecurities, naivete and hopes of mid 19th century America.  This is interesting in some abstract way, but one would think not quite interesting enough to rate one and two in the tally of tourist sites.

  It is a little embarrassing that more people should want to gawk at a bell than visit the entire building in which it hung, especially considering that the bell’s accomplishment was to go ding dong, while the building hosted exceptional men changing the course of history.  This embarrassment is not entirely Philadelphia’s fault, but certainly it is a little shady on our part to continue to shill 19th century confections and to encourage the sentimentality and ignorance required to make them seem profound.

  Maybe it is time for Philadelphia to downplay Betsy and the Bell as major attractions.  Like the Christmas show at the former Wanamaker’s, they are interesting period pieces.  Unfortunately, they are period pieces of the wrong period.