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Back
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Person Code
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NA19114
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Forenames
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Andrew
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Surname
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Carnegie
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Activity
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Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919), was the eldest son of William Carnegie, weaver in Dunfermline, and Margaret, daughter of Thomas Morrison. In 1848 the Carnegie family emigrated to the USA and settled in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania. He began work in a cotton factory at the age of thirteen. In 1850 Colonel James Anderson, the founder of free libraries in Western Pennsylvania, decided to open his private library to 'working boys'. Andrew Carnegie, then working as a messenger boy, wrote a letter to the 'Pitsburgh Dispatch' in order to persuade him to include messenger boys in that category. He was successful and obtained books from that library every Saturday. In 1853 he began employment with the Pennsylvania Railroad Co and subsequently invested in various railroad projects. During the Civil War (1861-1865), when iron rails were in demand, he organised a rail manufacturing company, launched the Pittsburgh Locomotive Works and formed the Keystone Ironbridge Co. Andrew Carnegie quickly became very wealthy and by 1899, when his various concerns vested in the Carnegie Steel Co, the profits were forty million dollars. In 1901 the Carnegie Steel Co was sold to the United States Steel Corporation for £89,000,000. Carnegie retired from business and embarked his doctrine of the wise distribution of surplus wealth. He granted four million dollars for the establishment of an accident and pension fund for workers of his company as well as one million dollars for the maintenance of libraries and other institutions in Pittsburgh which he had established. In 1882 he gifted a library to Dunfermline. From 1882 to 1919 Andrew Carnegie and the Carnegie Foundation of New York (from 1911) had spent £60,600,000 on the endowment of libraries in the United States, British Isles, Canada and other countries, as well as numerous other benefactions. Benefactions made in the British Isles were; The Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, 1901; The Carnegie Dunfermline Trust, 1903; The Carnegie Hero Fund Trust, 1908, and the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, 1916. In 1902 Andrew Carnegie received an honorary degree from the University of St Andrews and was installed as Lord Rector. He was also Lord Rector of Edinburgh and Aberdeen Universities. In 1898 he purchased the estate of Skibo, Sutherlandshire. He was a member of the Peace Society of Great Britain and became the first president of the Peace Society of New York in 1907. In 1887 he married Louise, daughter of John W Whitfield, of New York.
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Dates
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1835-1919
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Epithet
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manufacturer and philanthropist
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Notes
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See DNB.
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Associated records
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| NRAS2024 | Carnegie Hero Fund Trust, Dunfermline, Fife | 1908-1977 |
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