By Etta Washburn & Helen Ehrlich, Editors-In-Chief
Queen Elizabeth II’s 70-year-long reign ended on Thursday when she passed away at the Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. While people reflected on her memorable reign around the world, many Philadelphians chose to remember the Queen by her 1976 visit to the city, which made her the first sitting monarch to visit Philly. Queen Elizabeth explored the Philadelphia area, including Delaware County, 200 years after her great-great‐great‐great grandfather George III waged war on the city.
“I got to meet a lot of world leaders … but Queen Elizabeth II is at the top of the list. The Queen could be an intimidating person, but when you meet her, she comes over as a friend. It was easy to talk to her,” Hobbie Cawood told The Daily News. Cawood, the Independence National Historical Park’s Superintendent at the time, was charged with escorting the Queen around her tour of the city, which kickstarted her two-week visit to the United States.
The Philly Inquirer chronicled her journey through the city, which included a reception at City Hall and a banquet at the Philadelphia Museum of Art thrown in her honor. A New York Times article from 1976 said that the city “welcomed the 50‐year‐old Queen with an enthusiasm that seemed to demonstrate either that British royalty still has a fairytale glamor despite its solid virtue—or that everyone loves a good loser.”
Most notably, the Queen oversaw the historic presentation of the Bicentennial Bell. The Bell, a 10-ton replica of the Liberty Bell, arrived ahead of the Queen from the same London foundry as its original: a gift for the 200th birthday of the United States, an occasion she seemed as intent on celebrating with the American youth who looked on from the crowd.
“It seems to me that Independence Day, the Fourth of July, should be celebrated as much in Britain as in America,” Elizabeth said to the crowd at Independence National Historical Park. “Not in rejoicing at the separation of the American colonies from the British Crown, but in sincere gratitude to the founding fathers of the great republic for having taught Britain a very valuable lesson. We lost the American colonies because we lacked the statesmanship to know the right time and the manner of yielding, what is impossible to keep.” The crowd at the park applauded emphatically.
Elsewhere in the city, Philadelphia police arrested demonstrators protesting Great Britain’s occupation of Nothern Ireland who hoped to get the Queen’s attention. Today, Philadelphia still maintains one of the strongest Irish populations in the United States, at 14.2%, which was even larger in the 1970s. “ENGLAND OUT OF IRELAND,” read protestors’ signs. In Northern Ireland, during the first week of the Queen’s visit to the U.S., three civilians would die due to the ongoing conflict.
The monarch, surrounded by her American supporters, was too far away to hear the shouts of protestors.
