Carnegie Library - History

History

The first of Carnegie's public libraries opened in his hometown, Dunfermline, Scotland, in 1883. The locally quarried sandstone building displays a stylised sun with a carved motto - "Let there be light" at the entrance. His first library in the United States was built in 1889 in Braddock, Pennsylvania, home to one of the Carnegie Steel Company's mills. Initially Carnegie limited his support to a few towns in which he had an interest. From the 1890s on, his foundation funded a dramatic increase in number of libraries. This coincided with the rise of women's clubs in the post-Civil War period, which were most responsible for organizing efforts to establish libraries, including long-term fundraising and lobbying within their communities to support operations and collections. They led the establishment of 75-80 percent of the libraries in communities across the country.

Carnegie believed in giving to the "industrious and ambitious; not those who need everything done for them, but those who, being most anxious and able to help themselves, deserve and will be benefited by help from others." Under segregation black people were generally denied access to public libraries in the Southern United States. Rather than insisting on his libraries being racially integrated, he funded separate libraries for African Americans. For example, at Houston he funded a separate Colored Carnegie Library.

Most of the library buildings were unique, constructed in a number of styles, including Beaux-Arts, Italian Renaissance, Baroque, Classical Revival, and Spanish Colonial. Scottish Baronial was one of the styles used in Carnegie's native Scotland. Each style was chosen by the community, although as the years went by James Bertram, Carnegie's secretary, became less tolerant of designs which were not to his taste. Edward Lippincott Tilton, a friend often recommended by Bertram, designed many of the buildings. The architecture was typically simple and formal, welcoming patrons to enter through a prominent doorway, nearly always accessed via a staircase. The entry staircase symbolized a person's elevation by learning. Similarly, outside virtually every library was a lamppost or lantern, meant as a symbol of enlightenment.

In the early 20th century, a Carnegie library was often the most imposing structure in hundreds of small American communities.

• Carnegie Free Library of Braddock in Braddock, Pennsylvania, built in 1888, was the first Carnegie Library in the United States.

• Edinburgh Central Library, opened on 9 June 1890.

• Detail of the entrance to the Carnegie Library in Avondale, Cincinnati (1902) (Spanish colonial style).

• Carnegie Library in Houston, Texas (1904). The building was deemed too small fifteen years after it was built.

• Carnegie Library in Teddington, England, was built in 1906 in Edwardian Baroque style.

• Govan & Crosshill District Library, Scotland, built in 1906 by architect James Robert Rhind.

• Carnegie Library, San Antonio, Texas (1900-1924).

• Carnegie Library opened in 1916 in Grass Valley, California, (neoclassical style).

• Carnegie Library in Belgrade, Serbia - Belgrade University Library, built in 1921.

• Yorkville Library, one of the Carnegie libraries in Toronto, Ontario.

• Carnegie Library in Hull, England, now houses the Carnegie Heritage Centre, (Half-timbered architecture).

• Carnegie Library in Iron Mountain, Michigan. It now houses a history museum.

• Carnegie Library, Waupun, Wisconsin.