Andrew Carnegie’s decision to guide library construction developed through his personal experience. Born in 1835, he spent his first 12 years during the coastal city of Dunfermline, Scotland. There he listened to men read aloud and discuss books borrowed through the Tradesmen’s Subscription Library that his father, a weaver, had helped create.over at this website Carnegie began his formal education at age eight, but needed to stop after only 36 months. The rapid industrialization for the textile trade forced small businessmen like Carnegie’s father through business. Thus, a family sold their belongings and immigrated to Allegheny, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Although these new circumstances required the young Carnegie pay a visit to work, his learning did not end. Right after a year at a textile factory, he became a messenger boy with the local telegraph company. Most 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 magazine. Carnegie later said the colonel opened the windows in which the sunshine of knowledge streamed. In 1853, as soon as the colonel’s representatives made an effort to restrict the library’s use, Carnegie wrote a letter to editor from the Pittsburgh Dispatch defending an appropriate of all of the working boys to enjoy the pleasures on the library. More valuable, he resolved that, should he be wealthy, he would make similar opportunities available to other poor workers.
Above the next half-century Carnegie accumulated the fortune that could enable him to fulfill that pledge. Throughout his years to be a messenger, Carnegie had taught himself the skill of telegraphy. This skill helped him make contacts along with the Pennsylvania Railroad, where he went to work on age 18. Throughout his 12-year railroad association he rose quickly, ultimately becoming superintendent from the Pennsylvania’s Pittsburgh division. He simultaneously invested in many other businesses, including railroad locomotives, oil, and iron and steel. In 1865, Carnegie left the railroad to manage the Keystone Bridge Company, that was successfully replacing wooden railroad bridges with iron ones. With the 1870s he was focusing 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. Even before 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, through which he stated that wealthy men should do without extravagance, provide moderately because of their dependents, and distribute most of their riches to help the welfare and happiness of your common man–with all the consideration to aid only those who would help themselves. The Most Suitable 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 provide gifts that promoted scientific research, the typical spread of information, together with the promotion of world peace. Several organizations will continue to this present day: the Carnegie Corporation in New York, as an illustration, helps support Sesame Street.
On account of his background, Carnegie was particularly keen on public libraries. At some time he stated a library was the ideal gift for a community, as it gave people the cabability to improve themselves. His confidence was depending on the results of similar gifts from earlier philanthropists. In Baltimore, for instance, a library given by Enoch Pratt were definitely made use of by 37,000 folks 12 month. Carnegie considered that the relatively small number of public library patrons were more value in their community as opposed to masses who chose not to ever gain benefit from the library.
Carnegie divided his donations to libraries in to the retail and wholesale periods. All through the retail period, 1886 to 1896, he gave $1,860,869 for 14 endowed buildings in six communities in america. These buildings were actually community centers, containing recreational facilities for instance swimming pools combined with libraries. From the years after 1896, called the wholesale period, Carnegie not anymore supported urban multipurpose buildings. Instead he gave $39,172,981 to smaller communities that had limited accessibility 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 a lot of the towns receiving gifts were from the Midwest, in total 46 states benefited from Carnegie’s plan.
Andrew Carnegie stopped making gifts for library construction using a report built to him by Dr. Alvin Johnson, an economics professor. In 1916 Dr. Johnson visited 100 on the existing Carnegie libraries and studied their social significance, physical aspects, effectiveness, and financial condition. His final report determined that to remain really effective, the libraries needed trained personnel. Buildings were provided, but now it was time to staff them with professionals who would stimulate active, efficient libraries on their communities. Libraries already promised continued to always be built until 1923, but after 1919 all financial support was turned into library education.
When Andrew Carnegie died in 1919 at age 84, he had given nearly one-fourth of his life to causes through which he believed. His gifts to varied charities totalled nearly $350 million, almost 90 % of his fortune. Carnegie regarded all education as a means to raise people’s lives, and libraries provided one among his main tools to help you Americans generate a brighter future. Questions for Reading 1 1. How did progress and industrialization affect Carnegie, both as he was young, and later on? 2. What amount formal education did Carnegie have? What factors contributed to his involvement with books and reading? 3. What did Carnegie believe wealthy people need to do along with their money? Why did he believe? Does one agree? 4. How did supporting libraries fit with Carnegie’s past and his awesome 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, For the Trail of Carnegie Libraries, Antiques and Collecting (February 1994); Gerald R. Shields, Recycling Buildings for Libraries, Public Libraries (March/April 1994).