Andrew Carnegie’s decision to compliment library construction developed outside of his personal experience. Born in 1835, he spent his first 12 years from the coastal city of Dunfermline, Scotland. There he listened to men read aloud and discuss books borrowed from your Tradesmen’s Subscription Library that his father, a weaver, had helped create.link Carnegie began his formal education at age eight, but were forced to stop after only three years. The rapid industrialization of the textile trade forced small businessmen like Carnegie’s father from business. Consequently, the family unit sold their belongings and immigrated to Allegheny, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Although these new circumstances required the young Carnegie to venture to work, his learning did not end. After the year in any textile factory, he became a messenger boy with the local telegraph company. A number of his fellow messengers introduced him to Col. James Anderson of Allegheny, who every Saturday opened his personal library to any young worker who wished to borrow an ebook. Carnegie later said the colonel opened the windows through which the sunlight of information streamed. In 1853, should the colonel’s representatives aimed to restrict the library’s use, Carnegie wrote a letter with the editor with the Pittsburgh Dispatch defending the ideal coming from all working boys to enjoy the pleasures of the library. More significant, he resolved that, should he ever be wealthy, he will make similar opportunities available for other poor workers.

Across the next half-century Carnegie accumulated the fortune that would enable him to fulfill that pledge. Throughout his years as the messenger, Carnegie had taught himself the ability of telegraphy. This skill helped him make contacts while using the Pennsylvania Railroad, where he traveled to just work at age 18. During his 12-year railroad association he rose quickly, ultimately becoming superintendent of the Pennsylvania’s Pittsburgh division. He simultaneously invested in a lot of other businesses, including railroad locomotives, oil, and iron and steel. In 1865, Carnegie left the railroad to deal with the Keystone Bridge Company, that was successfully replacing wooden railroad bridges with iron ones. By your 1870s he was concentrating on 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 what to do with his immense fortune. In 1889 he wrote a famous essay entitled The Gospel of Wealth, in which he stated that wealthy men should do without extravagance, provide moderately with regard to dependents, and distribute the remainder of their riches to profit the welfare and happiness belonging to the common man–while using the consideration that can help solely those who would help themselves. The Most Beneficial Fields for Philanthropy, his second essay, listed seven fields in which the wealthy should donate: universities, libraries, medical centers, public parks, meeting and concert halls, public baths, and churches. He later expanded this list to add in gifts that promoted scientific research, the typical spread of information, and the promotion of world peace. A large number of organizations will continue to this present day: the Carnegie Corporation in Ny, for instance, helps support Sesame Street.

Resulting from his background, Carnegie was particularly interested in public libraries. At some point he stated a library was the perfect gift for any community, simply because it gave people the opportunity to improve themselves. His confidence was according to the results of similar gifts from earlier philanthropists. In Baltimore, to illustrate, a library distributed by Enoch Pratt was basically utilized by 37,000 people a year. Carnegie believed that the relatively few public library patrons were of more value at their community versus the masses who chose to not ever gain benefit from the library.

Carnegie divided his donations to libraries directly into the retail and wholesale periods. Throughout the retail period, 1886 to 1896, he gave $1,860,869 for 14 endowed buildings in six communities in north america. These buildings were actually community centers, containing recreational facilities including private pools together with libraries. From the years after 1896, known as the wholesale period, Carnegie no more supported urban multipurpose buildings. Instead he gave $39,172,981 to smaller communities who had limited having access to cultural institutions. His gifts provided 1,406 towns with buildings devoted exclusively to libraries. Over half his grants were for less than $ten thousand. Although lots of the towns receiving gifts were within the Midwest, as a whole 46 states taken advantage of Carnegie’s plan.

Andrew Carnegie stopped making gifts for library construction right after a report built 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 determined that to get really effective, the libraries needed trained personnel. Buildings were provided, the good news is it was time to staff all of them pros who would stimulate active, efficient libraries of their communities. Libraries already promised continued to be built until 1923, but after 1919 all financial support was considered library education.

When Andrew Carnegie died in 1919 at age 84, he had given nearly one-fourth of his life to causes of which he believed. His gifts to numerous charities totalled nearly $350 million, almost 90 % of his fortune. Carnegie regarded all education as an approach to increase people’s lives, and libraries provided one of his main tools that can help Americans generate a brighter future. Questions for Reading 1 1. How did progress and industrialization affect Carnegie, both when he was young, and down the road? 2. The amount of formal education did Carnegie have? What factors contributed to his involvement in books and reading? 3. What did Carnegie believe wealthy people must do along with their money? Why did he assume that? Would you agree? 4. How did supporting libraries match Carnegie’s past with his fantastic 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, Within the Trail of Carnegie Libraries, Antiques and Collecting (February 1994); Gerald R. Shields, Recycling Buildings for Libraries, Public Libraries (March/April 1994).