Andrew Carnegie is an important historical figure known for his philanthropy, especially to libraries. According to Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography and Carnegie’s autobiography, this Scottish businessman was born in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, on November 25, 1835 to William, a hand loom weaver, and Margaret Morrison Carnegie (Botta, 1900; Carnegie, 1920, pp. 1, 379). Steam loom weaving (by machine) soon began replacing the work of hand loom weaving; thus, the father could no longer find work. Thus, they were forced to immigrate to the United States in order for William to gain employment. The family thus left Scotland in 1848 (by borrowing money) and settled in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, according to both Britannica Encyclopedia and Carnegie’s autobiography (“Andrew Carnegie, “ 1911; Carnegie, 1920, pp. 12, 34, 55). William ultimately found a job in a cotton mill; however, he later returned to hand weaving, thus selling his hand-made linens. Meanwhile, Andrew was earning $2.50 per week as a telegraph messenger boy for the Pittsburgh division of the Ohio Telegraph Company (Botta, 1900; Carnegie, 1920, pp. 34-5, 62). One of the benefits of his job was that he was granted free admission to the neighborhood theatre; hence, he grew to appreciate classic literature (Carnegie, 1920, p. 48). Hence, this may have been the foundation for his love of libraries.
Due to his hard work, Carnegie was promoted and became an operator at work. His boss, Col. James Anderson, owned the Free Libraries in Western Pennsylvania and opened it up to his workers every Saturday afternoon. Carnegie soon began to develop a passion for libraries. It was then that he realized that the most productive way to spend money was to build libraries for communities (Carnegie, 1920, p. 47). Hence, by reading books, Carnegie began to develop intellectually, and his intelligence went noticed by others (Carnegie, 1920, p. 47).
One person who saw intelligence and promise in Carnegie was Thomas A. Scott of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. He gave Carnegie a job as a secretary in the company and became his mentor, teaching him about both management and cost control (“Andrew Carnegie, 1911; Carnegie, 1920, p. 63; Nasaw, 2007, pp. 54-9, 64-5). He encouraged Carnegie to invest money in the oil, rail, and steel industries, which Carnegie began doing in 1855 (Nasaw, 2007, 59–60, 85–88, 102–104, 107). In 1859, Carnegie was promoted to superintendent of the line’s western division. He was hard-working and “made several improvements in the service” (“Andrew Carnegie,” 1911). After the Civil War, Carnegie began amassing wealth by introducing sleeping-cars for railways and purchasing Storey Farm on Oil Creek (in 1864). Soon afterward, he turned his attention to developing iron and steel industries in Pittsburgh. In the 1880s, he founded Keystone Bridge Works and the Edgar Thomas steel-rail mill, and brought Homestead steel works. By 1888, he was an incredibly wealthy man- owning a coal plant, a 425-mile long railroad, iron fields, steamships, and various steel companies such as the Carnegie Steel Company (1892). In 1901, Carnegie’s companies were merged and incorporated into the United States Steel Corporation, a trust organized by J. Pierpont Morgan, and was brought out for $1 billion. That same year, Carnegie decided to retire from the steel business (“Andrew Carnegie,” 1911). Hi steel corporations were brought out for over $10 billion, in which Carnegie’s share was over $200 million (or over $5 billion in today’s currency) (“Andrew Carnegie,” 1911; Nasaw, 2007, “Introduction”).
Carnegie spent the last years of his life as a philanthropist and an advocate of both educational advancement and spelling reform. He began establishing “Carnegie libraries” in the U.K., in which the first opened in Dunfermlime, Scotland, in 1883. In 1885, the first Carnegie library in the U.S. was built in Pittsburgh. By 1908, Carnegie had donated over $100,000,000 to build nearly 3,000 libraries (such as the Vermont Square Branch Library) and fund educational institutions through-out the English-speaking world. He also set up pensions for American college professors in 1905, founded the Carnegie Hero Fund commissions in the U.S. and U.K. (1904-1905), and supported the arts (“Andrew Carnegie,” 1911; Botta, 1900).
According to the New York Times, after years of philanthropy, the financial tycoon died on August 11, 1919 in Lenox, Massachusetts. By that time, he had already given away over $370 million (about $4 billion today) of his wealth. After his death, his last $30 million (somewhere close to $275 million today) was divided up among pensioners, charities, foundations, family, and friends (“Andrew Carnegie Dies,” 1919). Carnegie not only left money behind, but a great legacy for the American people. This is why he is a representation of the “American Dream” and is now known as the “Captain of Industry” (“Andrew Carnegie,” 1911; PBS, 1996, para. 1).
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