Carnegie library
At first, Carnegie libraries were almost exclusively in places with which he had a personal connection—namely his birthplace in Scotland and the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, his adopted hometown.
As Carnegie's library funding progressed, very few of the towns that requested a grant, committing to his terms for operation and maintenance, were refused.
The first library in the United States to be commissioned by Carnegie was in 1886 in his adopted hometown of Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now the North Side of Pittsburgh).
The first Carnegie library to open in the United States was in Braddock, Pennsylvania, about 9 miles up the Monongahela River from Pittsburgh.
The Braddock, Homestead, and Duquesne libraries were owned not by municipalities, but by Carnegie Steel, which constructed them, maintained them, and delivered coal for their heating systems.
[1] "To this day, Carnegie's free-to-the-people libraries remain Pittsburgh's most significant cultural export, a gift that has shaped the minds and lives of millions.
They primarily took the lead in organizing local efforts to establish libraries, including long-term fundraising and lobbying within their communities to support operations and collections.
"[7] Under segregation, Black people were generally denied access to public libraries in the Southern United States.
[13] The architecture was typically simple and formal, welcoming patrons through a prominent doorway, nearly always accessed via a staircase from the ground level.
Similarly, most libraries had a lamp post or lantern installed near the entrance, meant as a symbol of enlightenment.
[14] Carnegie's grants were very large for the era, and his library philanthropy was one of the most costly philanthropic activities, by value, in history.
[16] Books and libraries were important to Carnegie, from his early childhood in Scotland and his teen years in Allegheny and Pittsburgh.
[17] Later in Pennsylvania, while working for the local telegraph company in Pittsburgh, Carnegie borrowed books from the personal library of Colonel James Anderson (1785-1861).
In his autobiography, Carnegie credited Anderson with providing an opportunity for "working boys" (that some people said should not be "entitled to books") to acquire the knowledge to improve themselves.
[25] By 1890, many states had begun to take an active role in organizing public libraries, and the new buildings filled a tremendous need.
Interest in libraries was also heightened at a crucial time in their early development by Carnegie's high profile and his genuine belief in their importance.
The ALA discouraged Richardsonian characteristics such as alcoved book halls with high shelves requiring a ladder, as well as sheltered galleries and niches, reminiscent of sixteenth-century Europe, largely because modern librarians could not supervise such spaces efficiently.
This concern resulted in the placement of the library's circulation desk—which replaced the delivery desk used in traditional closed stacks libraries—just inside the front door.
Bigger and more daunting than those used in modern libraries, these desks spanned almost the width of the lobby and acted as a physical and psychological barrier between the front entrance and the book room.
Patricia Lowry describes located just beyond the lobby, the circulation desk—no longer a delivery desk—took center stage in Lawrenceville, flanked by turnstiles that admitted readers to the open stacks one at a time, under the librarian's watchful eye.
[38] Carnegie's response to those criticisms and the ensuing Homestead Steel Strike was telling of what he thought of his workers' concerns: "If I had raised your wages, you would have spent that money by buying a better cut of meat or more drink for your dinner.
[40] In addition to the criticisms of his philanthropic interests and motivations, the construction of libraries in the American South was a highly contentious topic.
[41] In the years following, as the American Library Association continued to ignore the systematic implementation of Jim Crow in the South, the Carnegie Corporation also continued to acquiesce to the social norms of the day and even required communities seeking grants to base their appropriations "only upon the White population of the towns.
The microfilms are open for research as part of the Carnegie Corporation of New York Records collection, residing at Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Such documents may include correspondence, completed applications and questionnaires, newspaper clippings, illustrations, and building dedication programs.
Beginning in the 1930s during the Great Depression, some libraries were meticulously measured, documented and photographed under the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) program of the National Park Service.
This was part of an effort to record and preserve significant buildings..[48] Other documentation has been collected by local historical societies.
In 1935, the centennial of Carnegie's birth, a copy of the portrait of him originally painted by F. Luis Mora was given to libraries which he had helped fund.
[49] Many of the Carnegie libraries in the United States, whatever their current uses, have been recognized by listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
