Andrew Carnegie’s decision to help library construction developed out of his experience. Born in 1835, he spent his first 12 years within the coastal city of Dunfermline, Scotland. There he listened to men read aloud and discuss books borrowed from the Tradesmen’s Subscription Library that his father, a weaver, had helped create.http://www.cover-letter-writing.com/cv-writing/ Carnegie began his formal education at age eight, but must stop after only 3 years. The rapid industrialization in the textile trade forced small businessmen like Carnegie’s father using business. For that reason, a family sold their belongings and immigrated to Allegheny, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Although these new circumstances required the young Carnegie to visit work, his learning failed to end. Right after a year in a very textile factory, he was a messenger boy for that 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 a magazine. Carnegie later said the colonel opened the windows whereby the light of information streamed. In 1853, if the colonel’s representatives attempted to restrict the library’s use, Carnegie wrote a letter to the editor from the Pittsburgh Dispatch defending the right of most working boys have fun in the pleasures belonging to the library. More vital, he resolved that, should he ever be wealthy, he will make similar opportunities designed to other poor workers.
Across the next half-century Carnegie accumulated the fortune that is going to enable him to satisfy that pledge. Throughout his years like a messenger, Carnegie had taught himself the ability of telegraphy. This skill helped him make contacts using the Pennsylvania Railroad, where he went to work at age 18. During his 12-year railroad association he rose quickly, ultimately becoming superintendent belonging to the Pennsylvania’s Pittsburgh division. He simultaneously invested in various other businesses, including railroad locomotives, oil, and iron and steel. In 1865, Carnegie left the railroad to deal with the Keystone Bridge Company, that has been successfully replacing wooden railroad bridges with iron ones. Through 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. Just 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, during which he stated that wealthy men should do without extravagance, provide moderately with regard to dependents, and distribute the remainder of their riches to benefit the welfare and happiness in the common man–aided by the consideration that can help just those would you help themselves. The Most Effective 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 feature gifts that promoted scientific research, the typical spread of information, as well as promotion of world peace. A large number of organizations keep this day: the Carnegie Corporation in New York City, one example is, helps support Sesame Street.
Caused by his background, Carnegie was particularly serious about public libraries. At some time he stated a library was the perfect gift for any community, because it gave people the opportunity improve themselves. His confidence was depending upon the results of similar gifts from earlier philanthropists. In Baltimore, as an example ,, a library distributed by Enoch Pratt ended up made use of by 37,000 individuals twelve months. Carnegie believed that the relatively small number of public library patrons were of more value to their own community than the masses who chose to never benefit from the library.
Carnegie divided his donations to libraries on the retail and wholesale periods. Through the retail period, 1886 to 1896, he gave $1,860,869 for 14 endowed buildings in six communities in the United States. These buildings were actually community centers, containing recreational facilities for instance pools combined with libraries. With the years after 1896, called the wholesale period, Carnegie not anymore supported urban multipurpose buildings. Instead he gave $39,172,981 to smaller communities who had limited admittance to cultural institutions. His gifts provided 1,406 towns with buildings devoted exclusively to libraries. Over half his grants were cheaper than $10,000. Although almost all the towns receiving gifts were with the Midwest, in total 46 states benefited from Carnegie’s plan.
Andrew Carnegie stopped making gifts for library construction using a report created 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 to remain really effective, the libraries needed trained personnel. Buildings have been provided, these days the time had come to staff these people with professionals who would stimulate active, efficient libraries for their communities. Libraries already promised continued to remain built until 1923, but after 1919 all financial support was turned to 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 several charities totalled nearly $350 million, almost 90 % of his fortune. Carnegie regarded all education as a means to increase people’s lives, and libraries provided an example of his main tools to help Americans make a brighter future. Questions for Reading 1 1. How did progress and industrialization affect Carnegie, both as he was young, and in the future? 2. Just how much formal education did Carnegie have? What factors contributed to his interest on books and reading? 3. What did Carnegie believe wealthy people should do using money? Why did he believe that? Does a person agree? 4. How did supporting libraries match Carnegie’s past and his 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, To the Trail of Carnegie Libraries, Antiques and Collecting (February 1994); Gerald R. Shields, Recycling Buildings for Libraries, Public Libraries (March/April 1994).
