Andrew Carnegie’s decision to aid library construction developed through his personal experience. Born in 1835, he spent his first 12 years with the coastal town of Dunfermline, Scotland. There he listened to men read aloud and discuss books borrowed coming from the Tradesmen’s Subscription Library that his father, a weaver, had helped create.continue reading this Carnegie began his formal education at age eight, but needed to stop after only 3 years. The rapid industrialization from 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 see work, his learning did not end. After the year inside of a textile factory, he became a messenger boy in the local telegraph company. Many of his fellow messengers introduced him to Col. James Anderson of Allegheny, who every Saturday opened his personal library for any young worker who wished to borrow a book. Carnegie later said the colonel opened the windows where the light of information streamed. In 1853, after the colonel’s representatives attempted to restrict the library’s use, Carnegie wrote a letter with the editor of this Pittsburgh Dispatch defending the perfect of the working boys have fun with the pleasures of the library. More valuable, he resolved that, should he ever be wealthy, he would make similar opportunities open to other poor workers.

Above the next half-century Carnegie accumulated the fortune that may enable him to fulfill that pledge. During his years as an effective messenger, Carnegie had taught himself the art of telegraphy. This skill helped him make contacts with all the Pennsylvania Railroad, where he traveled to just work at age 18. During his 12-year railroad association he rose quickly, ultimately becoming superintendent in the Pennsylvania’s Pittsburgh division. He simultaneously invested in a number 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 had been successfully replacing wooden railroad bridges with iron ones. From the 1870s he was being focused 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 how to handle his immense fortune. In 1889 he wrote a famous essay entitled The Gospel of Wealth, whereby he stated that wealthy men should live without extravagance, provide moderately for his or her dependents, and distribute the rest of their riches to profit the welfare and happiness of the common man–when using the consideration to help you just those who would help themselves. The Perfect Fields for Philanthropy, his second essay, listed seven fields to 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 gifts that promoted scientific research, the actual spread of information, as well as promotion of world peace. Most of these organizations continue to this present day: the Carnegie Corporation in Nyc, such as, helps support Sesame Street.

Thanks to his background, Carnegie was particularly curious about public libraries. At one point he stated a library was the ideal gift for your community, considering that it gave people the opportunity to improve themselves. His confidence was in line with the outcomes of similar gifts from earlier philanthropists. In Baltimore, by way of example, a library given by Enoch Pratt was used by 37,000 individuals a year. Carnegie believed that the relatively small number of public library patrons were of more value for their community than the masses who chose to not 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 across the nation. These buildings were actually community centers, containing recreational facilities which include swimming pools not to mention libraries. Inside years after 1896, named the wholesale period, Carnegie not supported urban multipurpose buildings. Instead he gave $39,172,981 to smaller communities who had limited a chance 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 towns receiving gifts were in the Midwest, altogether 46 states taken advantage of Carnegie’s plan.

Andrew Carnegie stopped making gifts for library construction after having a report created to him by Dr. Alvin Johnson, an economics professor. In 1916 Dr. Johnson visited 100 of the existing Carnegie libraries and studied their social significance, physical aspects, effectiveness, and financial condition. His final report determined that to end up being really effective, the libraries needed trained personnel. Buildings was basically provided, the good news is the time had come to staff them experts who would stimulate active, efficient libraries within their communities. Libraries already promised continued as being 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 by which he believed. His gifts to numerous charities totalled nearly $350 million, almost 90 percent of his fortune. Carnegie regarded all education as a technique to enhance people’s lives, and libraries provided certainly one of his main tools to aid Americans develop a brighter future. Questions for Reading 1 1. How did progress and industrialization affect Carnegie, both when he was young, and in the future? 2. Exactely how much formal education did Carnegie have? What factors led to his involvement in books and reading? 3. What did Carnegie believe wealthy people must do along with their money? Why did he are convinced that? Does a person agree? 4. How did supporting libraries fit with Carnegie’s past and the 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, Over the Trail of Carnegie Libraries, Antiques and Collecting (February 1994); Gerald R. Shields, Recycling Buildings for Libraries, Public Libraries (March/April 1994).