Andrew Carnegie was the richest man in America.
He also built more libraries than anyone else in history.
The 19th century businessman funded the construction of more than public 2,500 libraries throughout the English-speaking world.
These Carnegie Libraries made up more than half of all the public libraries in the United States at the time.
Why were libraries so important to the richest man in America?
Carnegie was born into a family of poor Scottish immigrants. His rise is a true rags to riches story.
He was trying to make ends meet as a messenger boy for the railroad in Pittsburgh. He worked long hours from morning until 11:00pm or 6:00pm on alternating nights. He had very little time to get an education and not enough money to buy books.
Then he caught a lucky big break.
A local man named Colonel James Anderson announced that he would open up his personal library of 400 books to the working boys in the community.
Every Saturday young Carnegie would borrow a new book from Anderson’s library. He spent every extra moment he had during work to read these books before exchanging them the following Saturday.
Carnegie would later write in his autobiography:
“Every day’s toil and even the long hours of night service were lightened by the book which I carried about with me and read in the intervals that could be snatched from duty. And the future was made bright by the thought that when Saturday came a new volume could be obtained.”
Years later after Carnegie had become a very rich man, he built a monument dedicated to Colonel Anderson. It stands in front of the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to this day.
Ever grateful for the colonel’s generosity, Carnegie explained why he gave so much of his money away to build libraries:
“For if one boy in each library district, by having access to one of these libraries, is half as much benefited as I was by having access to Colonel Anderson’s four hundred well-worn volumes, I shall consider they have not been established in vain.”
Reflection Questions
- How have you benefited from local libraries?
- How could you utilize your local library more?
- Why do you think reading books helped Carnegie become so successful later in life?
- When can you find even a few extra minutes during the day to read more books?
