Andrew Carnegie’s decision to aid library construction developed due to their own experience. Born in 1835, he spent his first 12 years within the coastal town of Dunfermline, Scotland. There he listened to men read aloud and discuss books borrowed within the Tradesmen’s Subscription Library that his father, a weaver, had helped create.essaycapitals.com Carnegie began his formal education at age eight, but wanted to stop after only three years. The rapid industrialization belonging to the textile trade forced small businessmen like Carnegie’s father from business. Consequently, a family sold their belongings and immigrated to Allegheny, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Although these new circumstances required the young Carnegie to travel to work, his learning did not end. Right after a year inside of a textile factory, he became a messenger boy to your local telegraph company. Most 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 manuscript. Carnegie later said the colonel opened the windows where light of knowledge streamed. In 1853, should the colonel’s representatives made an effort to restrict the library’s use, Carnegie wrote a letter to the editor within the Pittsburgh Dispatch defending the ideal of the working boys to take pleasure from the pleasures of this library. More significant, he resolved that, should he be wealthy, he would make similar opportunities on the market to other poor workers.

Throughout the next half-century Carnegie accumulated the fortune that will enable him to meet that pledge. Throughout his years as being a messenger, Carnegie had taught himself the skill of telegraphy. This skill helped him make contacts when using the Pennsylvania Railroad, where he visited work at age 18. Throughout his 12-year railroad association he rose quickly, ultimately becoming superintendent of 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 take care of the Keystone Bridge Company, that had been successfully replacing wooden railroad bridges with iron ones. Through 1870s he was concentrating 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 begun to consider how to deal with his immense fortune. In 1889 he wrote a famous essay entitled The Gospel of Wealth, of which he stated that wealthy men should live without extravagance, provide moderately with regards to their dependents, and distribute the rest of their riches to profit the welfare and happiness of the common man–aided by the consideration that can help just those would you help themselves. The Top 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 typical spread of knowledge, and also the promotion of world peace. A great number of organizations consistently this day: the Carnegie Corporation in New York City, to provide an example, helps support Sesame Street.

Resulting from his background, Carnegie was particularly serious about public libraries. At one point he stated a library was the ideal gift to obtain a community, given that it gave people the cabability to improve themselves. His confidence was in line with the results of similar gifts from earlier philanthropists. In Baltimore, as an illustration, a library offered by Enoch Pratt were definitely utilized by 37,000 folks a year. Carnegie thought that the relatively small number of public library patrons were more value to their own community versus the masses who chose never to take advantage of the library.

Carnegie divided his donations to libraries on the retail and wholesale periods. In 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 like swimming pools plus libraries. On the years after 1896, termed as a wholesale period, Carnegie will no longer supported urban multipurpose buildings. Instead he gave $39,172,981 to smaller communities who had limited admission to cultural institutions. His gifts provided 1,406 towns with buildings devoted exclusively to libraries. Over half his grants were for under $10,000. Although lots of the towns receiving gifts were on the Midwest, altogether 46 states taken advantage of Carnegie’s plan.

Andrew Carnegie stopped making gifts for library construction right after a report manufactured to him by Dr. Alvin Johnson, an economics professor. In 1916 Dr. Johnson visited 100 from the existing Carnegie libraries and studied their social significance, physical aspects, effectiveness, and financial condition. His final report determined that for being really effective, the libraries needed trained personnel. Buildings ended up being provided, however right now it was time to staff these with pros who would stimulate active, efficient libraries of their communities. Libraries already promised continued as being 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 of which he believed. His gifts to numerous charities totalled nearly $350 million, almost 90 % of his fortune. Carnegie regarded all education as an approach to elevate people’s lives, and libraries provided considered one of his main tools that may help Americans construct a brighter future. Questions for Reading 1 1. How did progress and industrialization affect Carnegie, both when he was young, and later on? 2. Exactly how much formal education did Carnegie have? What factors led to his curiosity about books and reading? 3. What did Carnegie believe wealthy people have to do with their money? Why did he consider that? Do you really 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, On the Trail of Carnegie Libraries, Antiques and Collecting (February 1994); Gerald R. Shields, Recycling Buildings for Libraries, Public Libraries (March/April 1994).