Editing Carnegie library (section)

==History==
[[File:Carnegie Library, Dunfermline.jpg|thumb|upright|The first Carnegie library, in Dunfermline, Scotland]]
[[File:BCL 1024x768.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Carnegie Free Library of Braddock]] in [[Braddock, Pennsylvania]], built in 1888, was the first Carnegie Library in the United States to open (1889) and the first of four to be fully endowed.]]
Carnegie started erecting libraries in places with which he had personal associations.<ref name="palace">{{cite book |last1=Gangewere |first1=Robert J |title=Palace of culture: Andrew Carnegie's museums and library in Pittsburgh |date=September 2011 |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press |location=Pittsburgh, Pa |isbn=9780822943976}}</ref> The first of Carnegie's public libraries, [[Dunfermline Carnegie Library]], was in his birthplace, [[Dunfermline]], Scotland. It was first commissioned or granted by Carnegie in 1880 to [[James Campbell Walker]]<ref>{{cite web|title=James Campbell Walker|url=http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=200760|website=Dictionary of Scottish Architects|access-date=September 3, 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916211859/http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=200760|archive-date=September 16, 2016}}</ref> and would open in 1883.

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]]). In 1890, it became the second of his libraries to open in the US. The building also contained the first Carnegie Music Hall in the world.

The first Carnegie library to open in the United States was in [[Braddock, Pennsylvania|Braddock]], Pennsylvania, about 9 miles up the [[Monongahela River]] from Pittsburgh. In 1889, it was also the site of one of the [[Carnegie Steel Company]]'s mills. It was the second Carnegie Library in the United States to be commissioned, in 1887, and was the first of the four libraries which he fully endowed. An 1893 addition doubled the size of the building and included the third Carnegie Music Hall in the United States.

In the United States, nine of the first 13 libraries which Carnegie commissioned are all located in Southwestern Pennsylvania. The Braddock, [[Homestead, Pennsylvania|Homestead]], and [[Duquesne, Pennsylvania|Duquesne]] libraries were owned not by municipalities, but by Carnegie Steel, which constructed them, maintained them, and delivered coal for their heating systems.<ref name="palace" /> {{blockquote|"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."|author=Architectural critic Patricia Lowry <ref name="old.post-gazette.com">{{cite web|url=http://old.post-gazette.com/ae/20030302carnegie2.asp|title=Carnegie's Library Legacy|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160509112640/http://old.post-gazette.com/ae/20030302carnegie2.asp|archive-date=May 9, 2016}}</ref>}}

In 1897, Carnegie hired [[James Bertram (Carnegie secretary)|James Bertram]] as his personal assistant. Bertram was responsible for fielding requests from municipalities for funds and overseeing the dispensing of grants for libraries. When Bertram received a letter requesting a library, he sent the applicant a questionnaire inquiring about the town's population, whether it had any other libraries, how large its book collection was, and what its circulation figures were. If initial requirements were met, Bertram asked the amount the town was willing to pledge for the library's annual maintenance, whether a site was being provided, and the amount of money already available.<ref name="palace" />

Until 1898, only one library was commissioned in the United States outside [[Pittsburgh metropolitan area|Southwestern Pennsylvania]]: a library in [[Fairfield, Iowa]], commissioned in 1892. It was the first project in which Carnegie had funded a library to which he had no personal ties. The Fairfield project was part of a new funding model to be used by Carnegie (through Bertram) for thousands of additional libraries.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fairfieldculturaldistrict.org/museum.htm |title=Carnegie Historical Museum – Fairfield Cultural District |work=fairfieldculturaldistrict.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140406015722/http://www.fairfieldculturaldistrict.org/museum.htm |archive-date=April 6, 2014 |access-date=April 3, 2014 }}</ref>

[[File:Huntington Jr College 2014.jpg|thumb|[[Carnegie Public Library (Huntington, West Virginia)|Carnegie Public Library]] built in 1902, located in [[Huntington, West Virginia]]]]

Beginning in 1899, Carnegie's foundation funded a dramatic increase in the number of libraries. This coincided with the rise of [[women's club]]s in the post-Civil War period. 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.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Paula D. |last=Watson |title=Founding Mothers: The Contribution of Women's Organizations to Public Library Development in the United States |journal=Library Quarterly |volume=64 |issue=3 |year=1994 |page=236 |doi=10.1086/602699 |s2cid=142094870 }}</ref>  They led the establishment of 75–80 percent of the libraries in communities across the country.<ref>Teva Scheer, "The "Praxis" Side of the Equation: Club Women and American Public Administration", ''Administrative Theory & Praxis'', Vol. 24, Issue 3, 2002, p. 525</ref>

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."<ref>Andrew Carnegie, [http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABQ7578-0149-83 "The Best Fields for Philanthropy"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030113062124/http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABQ7578-0149-83 |date=January 13, 2003 }}, ''The North American Review'', Volume 149, Issue 397, December 1889 from the [[Cornell University Library]] website</ref> 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, Carnegie funded separate libraries for African Americans in the South. For example, in [[Houston]] he funded a separate Colored Carnegie Library.<ref>This library has been discussed in Cheryl Knott Malone's essay, "Houston's Colored Carnegie Library, 1907–1922." While still in manuscript, it was awarded the [[Justin Winsor Prize (library)|Justin Winsor Prize]] in 1997.  Accessed on-line August 2008 in a [http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~landc/fulltext/LandC_34_2_Malone.pdf revised version] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080909235220/http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~landc/fulltext/LandC_34_2_Malone.pdf |date=September 9, 2008 }}</ref> The Carnegie Library in [[Savannah, Georgia]], opened in 1914 to serve Black residents, who had been excluded from the segregated White public library. The privately organized Colored Library Association of Savannah had raised money and collected books to establish a small [[East Henry Street Carnegie Library|Library for Colored Citizens]]. Having demonstrated their willingness to support a library, the group petitioned for and received funds from Carnegie.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.liveoakpl.org/about/library-history.php |title=Library History |website=Live Oak Public Libraries |access-date=March 12, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140819083719/http://www.liveoakpl.org/about/library-history.php |archive-date=August 19, 2014 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.liveoakpl.org/upload/CarnegieLibrary100th.pdf |title=Carnegie Library, Savannah, Georgia |website=Live Oak Public Library |access-date=March 12, 2022 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150320010810/http://www.liveoakpl.org/upload/CarnegieLibrary100th.pdf |archive-date=March 20, 2015}}</ref> [[U.S. Supreme Court]] Justice [[Clarence Thomas]] wrote in his 2008 memoirs that he frequently used that library as a boy, before the public library system was desegregated.<ref>Clarence Thomas, ''[https://archive.org/details/mygrandfathersso00thom My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir]'', HarperCollins, 2008, pp. 17, 29, 30, Google Books</ref>

The library buildings were constructed in a number of styles, including [[Beaux-Arts architecture|Beaux-Arts]], [[Renaissance architecture|Italian Renaissance]], [[Baroque architecture|Baroque]], [[Neoclassical architecture|Classical Revival]], and [[Spanish Colonial style|Spanish Colonial]], to enhance their appearance as public buildings. [[Scottish baronial style|Scottish Baronial]] was one of the styles used for libraries in Carnegie's native Scotland. Each style was chosen by the community. As the years went by [[James Bertram (Carnegie secretary)|James Bertram]], Carnegie's secretary, became less tolerant of approving designs that were not to his taste.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/50carnegie/50facts3.htm|title=Carnegie Libraries – Reading 2|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502001235/http://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/50carnegie/50facts3.htm|archive-date=May 2, 2014}}</ref> [[Edward Lippincott Tilton]], a friend often recommended by Bertram, designed many of the buildings.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Mausolf |first1=Lisa B. |first2=Elizabeth Durfee |last2=Hengen |title=Edward Lippincott Tilton: A Monograph on His Architectural Practice |year=2007 |url=http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/peabody/about/Tiltonmonograph.pdf |access-date=September 28, 2011 |quote=Many of these were Carnegie Libraries, public libraries built between 1886 and 1917 with funds provided by Andrew Carnegie or the Carnegie Corporation of New York. In all, Carnegie funding was provided for 1,681 public library buildings in 1,412 U.S. communities, with additional libraries abroad. Increasingly after 1908, Carnegie library commissions tended to be in the hands of a relatively small number of firms that specialized in library design. Tilton benefited from a friendship with James Bertram, who was responsible for reviewing plans for Carnegie-financed library buildings.  Although the Carnegie program left the hiring of an architect to local officials, Bertram's personal letters of introduction gave Tilton a distinct advantage. As a result,  Tilton won a large number of comparatively modest Carnegie library commissions, primarily in the northeast. Typically, Tilton furnished all plans, working drawings, details and specifications and associated with a local architect, who would supervise construction and receive 5% of Tilton's commission. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927051548/http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/peabody/about/Tiltonmonograph.pdf |archive-date=September 27, 2011  }}</ref>

The architecture was typically simple and formal, welcoming patrons through a prominent doorway, nearly always accessed via a staircase from the ground level.  The entry staircase symbolized a person's elevation by learning. Similarly, most libraries had a lamp post or lantern installed near the entrance, meant as a symbol of [[American Enlightenment|enlightenment]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/607884927|title=Studying transcultural literary history|date=2006|others=Gunilla Lindberg-Wada|isbn=978-3-11-092055-0|location=Berlin|oclc=607884927}}</ref>

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. Carnegie continued funding new libraries until shortly before his death in 1919. Libraries were given to towns and cities in [[Great Britain]] and much of the English-speaking world: Almost $56.2 million went for construction of 2,509 libraries worldwide. Of that, $40 million was given for construction of 1,670 public library buildings in 1,412 American communities.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Murray|first=Stuart|title=The Library: An Illustrated History|publisher=Skyhorse Chicago: ALA Editions|year=2009|location=New York|pages=174–91}}</ref> Small towns received grants of $10,000 that enabled them to build large libraries that immediately were among the most significant town amenities in hundreds of communities.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/econ/55/ |title=Public Libraries and Political Particippation, 1870–1940 |last1=Kevane |first1=Michael J |last2=Sundstrom |first2=William A |date=2016 |journal=Economics |access-date=March 12, 2022}}</ref>