Andrew Carnegie’s decision to help library construction developed out of his own experience. Born in 1835, he spent his first 12 years inside the coastal town of Dunfermline, Scotland. There he heard men read aloud and discuss books borrowed on the Tradesmen’s Subscription Library that his father, a weaver, had helped create.Visit Website Carnegie began his formal education at age eight, but must stop after only 36 months. The rapid buy essay industrialization in the textile trade forced small businessmen like Carnegie’s father due to business. As a result, the household sold their belongings and immigrated to Allegheny, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Although these new circumstances required the young Carnegie to go to work, his learning failed to end. From a year within a textile factory, he was a messenger boy for that local telegraph company. Many of his fellow messengers introduced him to Col. James Anderson of Allegheny, who every Saturday opened his personal library to the young worker who wished to borrow a manuscript. Carnegie later said the colonel opened the windows whereby the sunshine of information streamed. In 1853, in the event the colonel’s representatives made an effort to restrict the library’s use, Carnegie wrote a letter into the editor from the Pittsburgh Dispatch defending the most suitable in all working boys to savor the pleasures of the library. More important, he resolved that, should he ever be wealthy, he makes similar opportunities on the market to other poor workers.
In the next half-century Carnegie accumulated the fortune that might enable him to satisfy that pledge. Throughout his years as a messenger, Carnegie had taught himself the skill of telegraphy. This skill helped him make contacts while using the Pennsylvania Railroad, where he visited just work at age 18. During his 12-year railroad association he rose quickly, ultimately becoming superintendent with 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 look after the Keystone Bridge Company, that was successfully replacing wooden railroad bridges with iron ones. Via the 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. Just before selling Carnegie Steel he had begun to consider what to do 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 regard to their dependents, and distribute most of their riches to benefit the welfare and happiness with the common man–along with the consideration to aid only those who will help themselves. The Perfect Fields for Philanthropy, his second essay, listed seven fields 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 incorporate gifts that promoted scientific research, the overall spread of knowledge, together with the promotion of world peace. A great number of organizations consistently this very day: the Carnegie Corporation in New York, one example is, helps support Sesame Street.
As a consequence of his background, Carnegie was particularly serious about public libraries. At one point he stated a library was the absolute best gift for that community, considering that it gave people the chance to improve themselves. His confidence was with regards to the results of similar gifts from earlier philanthropists. In Baltimore, for instance, a library offered by Enoch Pratt ended up being as used by 37,000 people in twelve months. Carnegie believed the relatively small number of public library patrons were more value to the community as compared to the masses who chose to not ever enjoy the library.
Carnegie divided his donations to libraries directly into the retail and wholesale periods. Within the retail period, 1886 to 1896, he gave $1,860,869 for 14 endowed buildings in six communities in the country. These buildings were actually community centers, containing recreational facilities just like pools and also libraries. Inside the years after 1896, named the wholesale period, Carnegie not anymore supported urban multipurpose buildings. Instead he gave $39,172,981 to smaller communities who had limited ability to access 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 almost all the towns receiving gifts were while in the Midwest, altogether 46 states taken advantage of Carnegie’s plan.
Andrew Carnegie stopped making gifts for library construction following a report developed to him by Dr. Alvin Johnson, an economics professor. In 1916 Dr. Johnson visited 100 belonging to the existing Carnegie libraries and studied their social significance, physical aspects, effectiveness, and financial condition. His final report determined that as being really effective, the libraries needed trained personnel. Buildings has been provided, these days it was time to staff these with professionals who would stimulate active, efficient libraries into their communities. Libraries already promised continued to generally 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 where he believed. His gifts to various charities totalled nearly $350 million, almost 90 % of his fortune. Carnegie regarded all education as a means to boost people’s lives, and libraries provided an example of his main tools that will help Americans establish 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. Exactly how much formal education did Carnegie have? What factors contributed to his interest on books and reading? 3. What did Carnegie believe wealthy people needs to do with their money? Why did he reckon that? On earth do you agree? 4. How did supporting libraries fit with 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, On your Trail of Carnegie Libraries, Antiques and Collecting (February 1994); Gerald R. Shields, Recycling Buildings for Libraries, Public Libraries (March/April 1994).
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