Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie
Born	Andrew Carnegie 25 11, 1835
Birthplace	Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland
Died	Template:Death date and age Lenox, Massachusetts, U.S.
Nationality	Scottish-American
Occupation	Industrialist, philanthropist
Known for	Founding Carnegie Steel Company; large-scale philanthropy; "The Gospel of Wealth"
Children	1
Awards	Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy (posthumous legacy awards in his name)
Website	[http://www.carnegiebirthplace.com/ Official site]

Andrew Carnegie (November 25, 1835 – August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist who led the dramatic expansion of the American steel industry in the late nineteenth century and became one of the richest individuals in history. Born into modest circumstances in the weaving town of Dunfermline, Scotland, Carnegie immigrated to the United States as a child and rose from work in a cotton mill and as a telegraph messenger to build Pittsburgh's Carnegie Steel Company into the dominant force in American steelmaking. In 1901, he sold the company to financier J. P. Morgan for $303,450,000, a transaction that formed the basis of the United States Steel Corporation and made Carnegie the wealthiest American of his era. During the final eighteen years of his life, Carnegie gave away approximately $350 million—nearly ninety percent of his fortune—to charities, foundations, universities, and libraries across the United States, Great Britain, and the British Empire. His 1889 essay "The Gospel of Wealth" articulated a philosophy that the rich had a moral obligation to distribute their surplus wealth for the improvement of society, an idea that influenced generations of philanthropists. Among his enduring institutional legacies are the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Carnegie Institution for Science, Carnegie Hall, the Carnegie Hero Fund, the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Mellon University.

Early Life

Andrew Carnegie was born on November 25, 1835, in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, to William Carnegie and Margaret Morrison Carnegie. His father was a handloom weaver who worked from the family's small cottage, producing linen cloth in what was then one of Scotland's principal textile centers. His mother, Margaret, came from a family with a tradition of political activism and cobbling. The Carnegie household, though not destitute, occupied a single room that doubled as both living quarters and William Carnegie's workshop.

During the 1840s, the introduction of steam-powered looms in Scotland's textile industry severely undercut the livelihood of handloom weavers such as William Carnegie. The family faced increasing economic hardship as demand for hand-woven linen collapsed. Margaret Carnegie, determined to seek a better future for the family, borrowed money and organized the family's emigration to the United States. In 1848, when Andrew was twelve years old, the Carnegies left Dunfermline and sailed to America, eventually settling in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh.

The young Carnegie's experience of poverty and dislocation in Scotland left a lasting impression on him. Dunfermline's culture of self-education and its tradition of lending libraries—particularly the libraries opened to working people by local benefactors—shaped his later conviction that access to knowledge was a primary engine of social advancement. Carnegie would later recall his childhood in Dunfermline with affection and credited his mother's resolve and industriousness as formative influences on his character.

Upon arriving in the Pittsburgh area, Carnegie immediately entered the workforce. His first job was as a bobbin boy in a cotton mill, where he earned $1.20 per week. The work was physically demanding and the hours long, but Carnegie supplemented his meager formal education by reading voraciously. He gained access to the personal library of Colonel James Anderson, a local benefactor who opened his collection of four hundred volumes to working boys every Saturday afternoon. Carnegie later credited Anderson's library with providing him the educational foundation that formal schooling had not.

Career

Early Employment and the Telegraph

After his stint in the cotton mill, Carnegie found work as a telegraph messenger boy in Pittsburgh around 1849, a position that brought him into contact with the city's business community. He quickly distinguished himself by memorizing the locations of Pittsburgh's major businesses and the faces of prominent citizens. Carnegie taught himself to distinguish telegraph signals by ear, a skill that earned him promotion to telegraph operator. His proficiency attracted the notice of Thomas A. Scott, superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad's Western Division, who hired Carnegie as his personal telegrapher and secretary in the 1850s.

Working under Scott, Carnegie received an education in business management, railroad operations, and capital investment that proved invaluable. Scott introduced him to the practice of investing in companies connected to the railroad industry and helped facilitate Carnegie's first significant investment. By the early 1860s, Carnegie had accumulated stakes in railroads, railroad sleeping cars, bridges, and oil derricks. He also discovered an aptitude for raising capital, which he would employ as a bond salesman, placing American enterprise securities with European investors.

Rise in Industry

During the American Civil War, Carnegie assisted in organizing the military telegraph system and the transport of Union troops via rail, further expanding his network of business contacts and his knowledge of industrial logistics. After the war, he shifted his focus toward the iron and bridge-building industries, recognizing the vast infrastructure needs of a rapidly expanding nation. Carnegie invested in the Keystone Bridge Company and several iron-manufacturing concerns, laying the groundwork for his later consolidation of the steel industry.

Carnegie traveled to England in the late 1860s and early 1870s, where he observed the Bessemer process for mass-producing steel. Recognizing that steel would supplant iron as the principal structural material for railroads, bridges, and buildings, Carnegie committed his resources to steelmaking. He established his first steel plant, the Edgar Thomson Steel Works, near Pittsburgh in the mid-1870s. The plant was named after J. Edgar Thomson, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad and one of Carnegie's early business patrons. The facility adopted the Bessemer process and later the open-hearth method, enabling cost-effective production at scale.

Carnegie Steel Company

Throughout the 1880s and 1890s, Carnegie aggressively expanded his steel operations, acquiring competitors, integrating vertically by controlling raw materials such as iron ore and coal, and investing in transportation infrastructure including railroads and steamship lines to ensure reliable supply chains. The result was the Carnegie Steel Company, headquartered in Pittsburgh, which by the late 1890s produced more steel than all of Great Britain.

Carnegie's business strategy emphasized cost reduction, technological innovation, and relentless reinvestment of profits. He hired talented managers, notably Henry Clay Frick, who oversaw daily operations at the company's plants. Carnegie himself often managed from a distance, spending extended periods at his estate in Scotland while maintaining control through correspondence and periodic visits.

The company's labor practices, however, became a source of controversy. The Homestead Strike of 1892, at the Carnegie Steel plant in Homestead, Pennsylvania, resulted in a violent confrontation between locked-out steelworkers and Pinkerton agents hired by Frick. Several workers and Pinkerton agents were killed, and the event drew national attention and criticism. Although Carnegie was in Scotland at the time of the strike, he was held partially responsible in public opinion for the company's hardline stance against the workers' union, the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers. The Homestead Strike damaged Carnegie's public reputation and became one of the most significant labor disputes in American industrial history.

In the aftermath of Homestead, anarchist Alexander Berkman attempted to assassinate Henry Clay Frick at his office in Pittsburgh. Frick survived the attack. Berkman later wrote about his motivations in his Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist.

Sale to J. P. Morgan and U.S. Steel

By the turn of the twentieth century, Carnegie Steel was the largest and most profitable steel enterprise in the world. In 1901, Carnegie agreed to sell the company to a syndicate organized by financier J. P. Morgan for $303,450,000. The sale formed the core of the newly created United States Steel Corporation, the first billion-dollar corporation in American history. Carnegie's personal share of the proceeds, approximately $225 million (equivalent to billions in present-day dollars), made him the richest American, surpassing John D. Rockefeller at that time.

Carnegie received the bulk of his payment in the form of gold bonds from U.S. Steel. With the sale completed, he retired from active business at the age of sixty-five and devoted the remainder of his life to philanthropy.

Philanthropy

Carnegie's philanthropic philosophy was articulated most fully in his 1889 essay "The Gospel of Wealth," published in the North American Review. In it, Carnegie argued that wealthy individuals had a responsibility to use their surplus wealth for the public good rather than bequeathing it to heirs or leaving its distribution to the state. He expressed support for progressive taxation and an estate tax as mechanisms to encourage the redistribution of concentrated wealth. The essay stimulated a broad public discussion about the obligations of the rich and influenced subsequent philanthropic practice in the United States and beyond.

Carnegie's philanthropic activities were extensive and varied. Among his most visible contributions was the funding of public libraries. Between 1883 and 1929, Carnegie and his associated foundations funded the construction of more than 2,500 libraries across the English-speaking world, including approximately 1,689 in the United States. The libraries were typically built on the condition that the local municipality would provide the site and commit to funding the library's ongoing operations. This model of matching grants became a template for later philanthropic initiatives.

Carnegie funded the construction of Carnegie Hall in New York City, which opened in 1891 and became one of the most prestigious concert venues in the world. He also financed the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, which was completed in 1913 and serves as the seat of the International Court of Justice.

Among the major institutions founded or endowed by Carnegie were:

• Carnegie Corporation of New York (1911) — a grant-making foundation established with an endowment of $125 million, intended to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge. The Corporation continues to operate in the twenty-first century, distributing grants to libraries, educational institutions, and other organizations.
• Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1910) — dedicated to promoting cooperation between nations and the elimination of war.
• Carnegie Institution for Science (1902) — originally the Carnegie Institution of Washington, established to fund scientific research. The institution supported the work of the Mount Wilson Observatory, among other projects.
• Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland (1901) — created to improve and extend higher education opportunities in Scotland.
• Carnegie Hero Fund (1904) — established to recognize individuals who perform acts of heroism in civilian life in the United States and Canada.
• Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh — a complex of four museums in Pittsburgh, including the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the Carnegie Museum of Art.
• Carnegie Mellon University — originally the Carnegie Technical Schools, founded in Pittsburgh in 1900, later merged with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research to form Carnegie Mellon University.
• Carnegie Dunfermline Trust — endowed to benefit the people of his birthplace.

The Carnegie Corporation of New York continues to distribute philanthropic grants in the twenty-first century. In 2026, the Corporation awarded $10,000 gifts to public libraries across the United States, including the Fulton Public Library in New York, the Norfolk Public Library in Nebraska, and the Old Town Public Library in Maine, among others.

Personal Life

Carnegie married Louise Whitfield on April 22, 1887, in New York City. The couple had one daughter, Margaret Carnegie Miller. Carnegie maintained residences in New York City and at Skibo Castle in Sutherland, Scotland, where he spent summers for many years. His Scottish estate became a gathering place for prominent guests from the worlds of politics, literature, and business.

Carnegie was a prolific writer and public speaker who engaged in debates on political economy, labor, imperialism, and international peace. He was a member of the Republican Party. He opposed American imperialism and the annexation of the Philippines following the Spanish-American War. Carnegie was an advocate for simplified spelling reform and supported various movements aimed at international arbitration and disarmament.

Carnegie's health declined in his final years, particularly after the outbreak of World War I in 1914, which deeply distressed him given his longstanding commitment to world peace. He spent his last years at his estate, Shadowbrook, in Lenox, Massachusetts. Andrew Carnegie died on August 11, 1919, at the age of eighty-three. He was buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York.

Recognition

Carnegie received numerous honors during his lifetime and has been the subject of extensive historical study since his death. His contributions to public library development, scientific research, education, and international peace have been memorialized through the institutions that bear his name.

The Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction, administered by the American Library Association (ALA), are among the principal literary awards in the United States for adult titles. The medals reflect the expert judgment of library professionals and are awarded annually.

The Carnegie Hero Fund, established in 1904, continues to recognize acts of civilian heroism across North America. Carnegie Hall remains one of the foremost performance venues in the world. The Peace Palace in The Hague, funded by Carnegie, serves as the seat of the International Court of Justice and the Permanent Court of Arbitration.

Carnegie's birthplace in Dunfermline is preserved as the Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Museum, which documents his life and legacy. His life has been the subject of numerous books, documentaries, and television programs, including a C-SPAN presentation on his career and influence.

Legacy

Andrew Carnegie's legacy is defined by both his role in the industrialization of the United States and his systematic approach to philanthropy. His business career illustrated the possibilities and tensions of the Gilded Age—an era of rapid economic growth, technological innovation, and stark inequality. Carnegie Steel's dominance reshaped the American economy and contributed to the infrastructure of modern industrial society, from railroads and bridges to skyscrapers and machinery.

Carnegie's philanthropic model—in which he directed his personal wealth toward the creation of institutions intended to provide lasting public benefit—established a template followed by subsequent American philanthropists. His insistence that the wealthy had a duty to redistribute their fortunes during their lifetimes, as articulated in "The Gospel of Wealth," anticipated later developments in organized philanthropy and influenced figures such as John D. Rockefeller, who adopted similar approaches. In the twenty-first century, Carnegie's philosophy has been cited as an antecedent to initiatives such as the Giving Pledge.

The library system Carnegie funded transformed public access to information in communities across the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries. Many Carnegie library buildings remain in use as public libraries or have been adapted for other civic purposes, and they are recognized as significant examples of early twentieth-century public architecture.

The Carnegie Corporation of New York, more than a century after its founding, continues to fund educational, cultural, and civic initiatives. Its ongoing grants to public libraries across the United States demonstrate the persistence of Carnegie's commitment to public knowledge and community institutions.

Carnegie's legacy is not without criticism. The Homestead Strike of 1892 and the labor conditions at Carnegie Steel remain subjects of historical debate, and scholars have examined the tension between Carnegie's public advocacy for workers' welfare and the practices of his companies. Nevertheless, the institutions he founded and the philanthropic philosophy he articulated have had a durable impact on American and international public life.