Philanthropy of Andrew Carnegie | Columbia University Libraries (2024)

FAQs

Did Carnegie donate his money to libraries? ›

One of 19th-century industrialist Andrew Carnegie's many philanthropies, these libraries entertained and educated millions. Between 1886 and 1919, Carnegie's donations of more than $40 million paid for 1,679 new library buildings in communities large and small across America.

Through Carnegie Corporation of New York, the innovative philanthropic foundation he established in 1911, his fortune has since supported everything from the discovery of insulin and the dismantling of nuclear weapons, to the creation of Pell Grants and Sesame Street.

The following list of Carnegie libraries in California provides detailed information on United States Carnegie libraries in California, where 142 public libraries were built from 121 grants (totaling $2,779,487) awarded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York from 1899 to 1917.

Carnegie Mellon University

In 1900, Andrew Carnegie created a $2 million endowment for a few technical schools in Pittsburgh that provided training at the secondary level. These schools quickly evolved into the Carnegie Institute of Technology, a college that received an additional endowment of more than $7 million.

There were only a few public libraries in the world when, in 1881, Carnegie began to promote his idea. He and the Carnegie Corporation subsequently spent over $56 million to build 2,509 libraries throughout the English-speaking world.

Carnegie spent over $55 million of his wealth on libraries alone, and he is often referred to as the “Patron Saint of Libraries.” It is said that Carnegie had two main reasons for supporting libraries.

Barely anything is left of Andrew's fortune, which was once valued on par with the oil tycoon Rockefellers and the banking Morgan family. The 13 fourth-generation members of Andrew Carnegie's lineage now have the self-made wealth of white collar professionals.

Like Rockefeller, critics labeled him a robber baron who could have used his vast fortunes to increase the wages of his employees. Carnegie believed that such spending was wasteful and temporary, but foundations would last forever. Regardless, he helped build an empire that led the United States to world power status.

1: Andrew Carnegie: (Estimated after adjustment $75-297.8 billion out of a total Net Worth of $298.3 billion) Carnegie is one of history's richest men. He died nearly a century ago. However, Carnegie is still the biggest philanthropist of all time.

So, what has become of Carnegie's libraries, and what is their future? Of the approximately 1,700 libraries that Carnegie helped fund in American towns and cities, about 800 are still in use as public libraries.

Who funds Carnegie libraries? ›

A Carnegie library is a library built with money donated by Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.

Carnegie ultimately gave away $60 million to fund a system of 1,689 public libraries across the country. "In bestowing charity the main consideration should be to help those who help themselves," he wrote.

Carnegie believed in giving wealth away during one's lifetime, and this essay includes one of his most famous quotes, “The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced.” Carnegie's message continues to resonate with and inspire leaders and philanthropists around the world.

Carnegie gifted the organ to Pittsburgh in 1895, when he opened his great library and museum building. The philanthropist would give more than 7,600 pipe organs to libraries, churches, and civic organizations. It was another way for him to share with the world something he loved.

Abstract. In the first 3 decades of the 20th century, John D. Rockefeller Sr. and Andrew Carnegie used their philanthropy to support 2 main mechanisms that functioned to exclude African American doctors from medical education and the medical profession.

Andrew Carnegie was once the richest man in the world. Coming as a dirt poor kid from Scotland to the U.S., by the 1880s he'd built an empire in steel — and then gave it all away: $60 million to fund a system of 1,689 public libraries across the country.

A month later, steel baron Andrew Carnegie offered $5.2 million to construct a system of branch libraries throughout New York City (what are now the five boroughs having been consolidated into the City of New York in 1898), provided the City would supply the sites and fund the libraries' maintenance and operations.

In 1881, Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) built his first library in his birthplace Dunfermline, Scottland. Years laters, Carnegie's philanthropy led to the creation of more libraries. Overall, Carnegie gave millions of dollars to establish more than 1,600 libraries in the United States.