Carnegie
Carnegie names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 1 of them is described by more than one encyclopedia.
Carnegie kar'ne-gi, Andrew
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
kar'ne-gi, Andrew, a Scottish-American manufacturer and philanthropist. He was born at Dunfermline, Scotland, November 25, 1837. His father, a weaver in a small way, was driven out of business by steam competition in 1848 and emigrated to Alleghany City, Pennsylvania. Young Andrew entered business as a bobbin boy at twenty cents a day. Soon afterward he became a telegraph messenger boy and then a telegraph operator. His superior skill brought him to the notice of Colonel Scott, superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railway, who made him superintendent of a railway division. Mr. Carnegie laid the foundation of his fortune by borrowing money and investing it wisely in a sleeping car system. Money made in this way he again invested in oil lands, which yielded him a handsome profit. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Colonel Scott, his old chief, became assistant secretary of war. He placed Carnegie in charge of the eastern division of military railroads and telegraph lines, a position which it is needless to say the latter filled with ability and integrity. When it became evident that wooden bridges for highways and railroads were to be replaced very generally by iron ones, Carnegie embarked in the business of building iron bridge work. From the first he saw the desirability of owning and controlling iron mines and coal mines, as well as machine shops. One step led to another naturally. By 1899 the Carnegie Steel Company controlled the iron and steel industry of Pennsylvania. In 1901 he retired from active business, exchanging his iron interests for $500,000,000 worth of United States Steel Corporation securities. "Mr. Carnegie's withdrawal from active business was signalized by a tremendous `stock-watering' operation. As a result, all people who use any form of iron-plate, tin or steel, have ever since been obliged to pay unduly high prices in order that the Steel Corporation may keep up dividends on this extra stock. At the same time, it is fair to say that Mr. Carnegie never followed the example of many accumulators of great wealth in defying the law and corrupting legislatures and judges." After a busy, and, we may say, strenuous life, Carnegie found himself at liberty to carry out his own personal inclinations. He built himself a magnificent home, known as Skibo Castle, in Scotland. His winter residence is in New York . Mr. Carnegie keeps open house at Skibo Castle. Many noted men visit him. Tobacco is one of his antipathies. Carnegie enjoys an enormous income and enjoys as well the pleasure of giving it away. Among his benefactions are the Carnegie Institute at Pittsburg, a technological institution of high standing, to which he has already given $10,000,000 and promised $15,000,000. The Carnegie Institution at Washington, D. C., has received $10,000,000. Mr. Carnegie gave $600,000 to the Booker T. Washington industrial institution for colored people at Tuskegee, Alabama. Among European gifts was one of $10,000,000 to the universities of Scotland. In 1905 it was said that his benefactions had passed the $100,000,000 mark. Carnegie libraries are now well known. He has adopted the plan of presenting communities with a sum sufficient to erect a library building, on condition that the site be furnished and a standing tax for the maintenance of the library assured. In 1905 there were 1,352 Carnegie Free Public Libraries established throughout the English-speaking world. From Canada to Tasmania, the gifts had reached a total of about $40,000,000. Among the larger gifts of this sort are $1,000,000 each for libraries at St. Louis, Homestead, Braddock, and Duquesne; libraries in Detroit and San Francisco have received $750,000 each. So many $5,000, $10,000, $20,000, and $50,000 Carnegie libraries have been erected in various parts of the United States that it is difficult to state their number. New York City received $3,000,000 for fifty branch libraries. See Steel
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
ANDREW, an American manufacturer and philanthropist, born in Dunfermline, Scotland, Nov. 25, 1837. He came to the United States in 1848, settled in Pittsburgh, became a telegraph operator and later a railroad superintendent. During the Civil War he served the Government as superintendent of military railways and telegraph lines in the East, and after the conflict was over established great iron works at Pittsburgh, with which city his business interests have been chiefly idenid ANDREW CARNEGIE He introduced the Bessemer tified. process of making steel in 1868. The extensive industries that he controlled were consolidated in 1889 into the Carnegie Steel Company, the largest plant of its kind in the country. In 1901 his interests were bought and merged by J. P. Morgan into the United States Steel Corporation. Mr. Carnegie then retired from business and devoted himself entirely to philanthropic and social welfare purposes. Up to June 1, 1918, he had given away $350,000,000. Over $60,000,000 of this amount was expended in the construction of 2,811 public libraries, while many more millions were devoted to their endowment. His benefac CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT 358 tions were not confined to the United States, for many millions were expended in Great Britain, especially his native Scotland. He wrote several books, of which the best known are: "Round the World" (1884); "Triumphant Democracy" (1886); "Gospel of Wealth" (1900); "The Empire of Business" (1902); and "Problems of To-day" (1908). He died at Lenox, Mass., Aug. 11, 1919. (See titles directly following.) CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE, an institution founded and endowed by Andrew Carnegie for promoting peace among the nations of the world. Ten million dollars were set aside as an endowment in 1910. Mr. Carnegie had been keenly interested in the Hague Tribunal, for which he had offered to provide a building at his own expense. In the deed of gift for the Endowment he told the trustees, Dec. 14, 1910, that the funds "are to be administered by you to hasten the abolition of international war, the foulest blot upon our civilization." S Some of the most distinguished men in the country had been selected as trustees. The outbreak of the World War in 1914 prevented the carrying out of the work of the Endowment. Once the war was on, however, the trustees did not hesitate to advocate the overthrow of Germany. On April 20, 1917, they warmly indorsed the act of the President in declaring war and appropriated half a million dollars for the purpose of reconstructing the devastated homes of Belgium, France, Serbia, and Russia.
Carnegie a borough of Pennsylvania
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a borough of Pennsylvania, in Allegheny co. It is on the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis, the Pittsburgh, Chartiers, and Youghiogheny, and the Wabash bash Pittsburgh Terminal railroads. Its chief industry is the manufacture of steel and it is also an important coal-mining center. In addition there are manufactures of The city lead, stoves, and granite ware. has a public library, Elks' Home, orphan asylum, high school, and other public buildings. Pop. (1910) 10,009; (1920) 11,516.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both accounts write of Carnegie in the present tense — Aiton's has him "keeping open house at Skibo Castle" — but he died at Lenox, Massachusetts, on 11 August 1919, before Collier's went to press in 1921, having given away roughly $350,000,000, close to the whole fortune. The institutions outlived him: the Carnegie Corporation of New York (founded 1911) and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1910) still fund work today, and the Carnegie Institute of Technology merged with the Mellon Institute in 1967 to become Carnegie Mellon University. His steel legacy has fared less well — US Steel, the corporation J. P. Morgan assembled from his works in 1901, was long since eclipsed and passed into Japanese ownership under Nippon Steel in 2025 — while Skibo Castle is now a private members' club and hotel. Modern writers also weigh his giving against the 1892 Homestead strike, which neither entry mentions.
Written for this edition, 2026.