Andrew Carnegie’s decision to hold library construction developed out of his very own experience. Born in 1835, he spent his first 12 years while in the coastal town of Dunfermline, Scotland. There he heard men read aloud and discuss books borrowed with the Tradesmen’s Subscription Library that his father, a weaver, had helped create.www.cover-letter-writing.com/cv-editing/ Carnegie began his formal education at age eight, but were forced to stop after only 36 months. The rapid industrialization within the textile trade forced small businessmen like Carnegie’s father beyond business. Thus, a family sold their belongings and immigrated to Allegheny, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Although these new circumstances required the young Carnegie to attend work, his learning failed to end. Right after a year in a textile factory, he became a messenger boy to the local telegraph company. Many 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 novel. Carnegie later said the colonel opened the windows through which the sunlight of knowledge streamed. In 1853, the moment the colonel’s representatives made an effort to restrict the library’s use, Carnegie wrote a letter to your editor within the Pittsburgh Dispatch defending the right of most working boys have fun with the pleasures in the library. More valuable, he resolved that, should he ever be wealthy, he will make similar opportunities available to other poor workers.

Over the next half-century Carnegie accumulated the fortune which would enable him to fulfill that pledge. During his years as a good messenger, Carnegie had taught himself the art of telegraphy. This skill helped him make contacts when using the Pennsylvania Railroad, where he went to work on age 18. Throughout his 12-year railroad association he rose quickly, ultimately becoming superintendent within the Pennsylvania’s Pittsburgh division. He simultaneously invested in a variety of other businesses, including railroad locomotives, oil, and iron and steel. In 1865, Carnegie left the railroad to manage the Keystone Bridge Company, which was successfully replacing wooden railroad bridges with iron ones. By 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. 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 do without extravagance, provide moderately with regard to their dependents, and distribute the rest of their riches to help the welfare and happiness from the common man–using the consideration for helping only those who would help themselves. The Top Fields for Philanthropy, his second essay, listed seven fields that 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 actual spread of information, and the promotion of world peace. A great number of organizations keep this present day: the Carnegie Corporation in The Big Apple, as an example, helps support Sesame Street.

By reason of his background, Carnegie was particularly looking into public libraries. At some time he stated a library was the ideal gift for one community, considering that it gave people the chance to improve themselves. His confidence was based on the outcomes of similar gifts from earlier philanthropists. In Baltimore, as an illustration, a library given by Enoch Pratt were utilized by 37,000 people one full year. Carnegie believed that the relatively small number of public library patrons were of more value thus to their community in comparison to the masses who chose to not benefit from the library.

Carnegie divided his donations to libraries on the retail and wholesale periods. Within the retail period, 1886 to 1896, he gave $1,860,869 for 14 endowed buildings in six communities in the states. These buildings were actually community centers, containing recreational facilities like pools in addition to libraries. On the years after 1896, known as the wholesale period, Carnegie no longer 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 $10,000. Although the majority of the towns receiving gifts were in your Midwest, altogether 46 states benefited from Carnegie’s plan.

Andrew Carnegie stopped making gifts for library construction using a report manufactured to him by Dr. Alvin Johnson, an economics professor. In 1916 Dr. Johnson visited 100 with the existing Carnegie libraries and studied their social significance, physical aspects, effectiveness, and financial condition. His final report determined that being really effective, the libraries needed trained personnel. Buildings appeared to be provided, however it was time to staff all of them pros who would stimulate active, efficient libraries into their communities. Libraries already promised continued to become built until 1923, but after 1919 all financial support was looked 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 percent of his fortune. Carnegie regarded all education as a means to improve people’s lives, and libraries provided certainly 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 in the future? 2. Exactly how much formal education did Carnegie have? What factors led to his interest in books and reading? 3. What did Carnegie believe wealthy people must do using money? Why did he imagine that? Would you 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, At the Trail of Carnegie Libraries, Antiques and Collecting (February 1994); Gerald R. Shields, Recycling Buildings for Libraries, Public Libraries (March/April 1994).