Andrew Carnegie’s decision to compliment library construction developed away from his experience. Born in 1835, he spent his first 12 years in the coastal city of Dunfermline, Scotland. There he listened to men read aloud and discuss books borrowed with the Tradesmen’s Subscription Library that his father, a weaver, had helped create./essay/ Carnegie began his formal education at age eight, but had to stop after only three years. The rapid industrialization of the textile trade forced small businessmen like Carnegie’s father away from business. For this reason, the household sold their belongings and immigrated to Allegheny, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Although these new circumstances required the young Carnegie to visit work, his learning failed to end. Following a year in any textile factory, he was a messenger boy for your local telegraph company. Many of his fellow messengers introduced him to Col. James Anderson of Allegheny, who every Saturday opened his personal library to your young worker who wished to borrow a guide. Carnegie later said the colonel opened the windows in which the sunlight of knowledge streamed. In 1853, the moment the colonel’s representatives tried to restrict the library’s use, Carnegie wrote a letter on the editor for the Pittsburgh Dispatch defending the proper of the working boys to savor the pleasures with the library. More essential, he resolved that, should he ever be wealthy, he will make similar opportunities available to other poor workers.
Across the next half-century Carnegie accumulated the fortune which would enable him to satisfy that pledge. Throughout his years as a messenger, Carnegie had taught himself the ability of telegraphy. This skill helped him make contacts together with the Pennsylvania Railroad, where he went to just work at age 18. Throughout his 12-year railroad association he rose quickly, ultimately becoming superintendent with the Pennsylvania’s Pittsburgh division. He simultaneously invested in numerous other businesses, including railroad locomotives, oil, and iron and steel. In 1865, Carnegie left the railroad to handle the Keystone Bridge Company, which had been successfully replacing wooden railroad bridges with iron ones. By 1870s he was paying attention to steel manufacturing, ultimately creating the Carnegie Steel Company. In 1901 he sold that business for $250 million.
Carnegie then retired and devoted the remainder of his life to philanthropy. Prior to selling Carnegie Steel he had started to consider how to deal with his immense fortune. In 1889 he wrote a famous essay entitled The Gospel of Wealth, where by he stated that wealthy men should live without extravagance, provide moderately with their dependents, and distribute the remainder of their riches to benefit the welfare and happiness belonging to the common man–along with the consideration to help you only those who would help themselves. The Right Fields for Philanthropy, his second essay, listed seven fields that the wealthy should donate: universities, libraries, medical centers, public parks, meeting and concert halls, public baths, and churches. He later expanded this list to include gifts that promoted scientific research, the general spread of information, additionally, the promotion of world peace. A number of these organizations always this day: the Carnegie Corporation in Nyc, for example, helps support Sesame Street.
By reason of his background, Carnegie was particularly looking into public libraries. At some point he stated a library was the very best gift to have a community, mainly because it gave people the opportunity to improve themselves. His confidence was according to the results of similar gifts from earlier philanthropists. In Baltimore, as an illustration, a library given by Enoch Pratt ended up being employed by 37,000 people one year. Carnegie thought that the relatively few public library patrons were more value to their community rrn comparison to the masses who chose not to ever benefit from the library.
Carnegie divided his donations to libraries on the retail and wholesale periods. While in the retail period, 1886 to 1896, he gave $1,860,869 for 14 endowed buildings in six communities in the nation. These buildings were actually community centers, containing recreational facilities which includes private pools plus libraries. Inside years after 1896, called wholesale period, Carnegie do not supported urban multipurpose buildings. Instead he gave $39,172,981 to smaller communities which had limited admittance to cultural institutions. His gifts provided 1,406 towns with buildings devoted exclusively to libraries. Over half his grants were cheaper than $10,000. Although lots of the towns receiving gifts were within the Midwest, in total 46 states taken advantage of Carnegie’s plan.
Andrew Carnegie stopped making gifts for library construction carrying out a report made to him by Dr. Alvin Johnson, an economics professor. In 1916 Dr. Johnson visited 100 of this existing Carnegie libraries and studied their social significance, physical aspects, effectiveness, and financial condition. His final report concluded that to get really effective, the libraries needed trained personnel. Buildings ended up being provided, but now the time had come to staff all of them with experts who would stimulate active, efficient libraries in their own communities. Libraries already promised continued to get built until 1923, but after 1919 all financial support was turned to library education.
When Andrew Carnegie died in 1919 at age 84, he had given nearly one-fourth of his life to causes whereby he believed. His gifts to various charities totalled nearly $350 million, almost 90 percent of his fortune. Carnegie regarded all education as a technique to elevate people’s lives, and libraries provided certainly one of his main tools for helping Americans set up a brighter future. Questions for Reading 1 1. How did progress and industrialization affect Carnegie, both when he was young, and later in life? 2. What amount formal education did Carnegie have? What factors contributed to his need for books and reading? 3. What did Carnegie believe wealthy people needs to do with their money? Why did he believe? Would you agree? 4. How did supporting libraries match Carnegie’s past along with his beliefs? Reading 1 was compiled from George S. Bobinski, Carnegie Libraries (Chicago: American Library Association, 1969); Andrew Carnegie, Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie, reprint (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1920 1986); Barry Sears, On your Trail of Carnegie Libraries, Antiques and Collecting (February 1994); Gerald R. Shields, Recycling Buildings for Libraries, Public Libraries (March/April 1994).
