Back to Carnegie’s story in America... as an immigrant and factory bobbin-boy in rural Pennsylvania, Andrew didn’t spend a lot of his youth hanging out in the library, not to mention school. But his did get a chance to educate himself at his next job with the telegraph company. His boss, James Anderson opened his library to the ‘working boys’ and Carnegie jumped at the chance to read, learn and improve himself. His investment in himself certainly paid off.
Carnegie started funding libraries in the 1880. His offered grants to towns that were willing to match his funds, provide a building site and raise ongoing operating expenses. He also required that the libraries be free and open to the public. Carnegie libraries sprang up across the country in every architectural style under the sun. Braddock Carnegie Library at 419 Library Street in Braddock, PA was Carnegie’s first US library, built in 1888. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and is still serving its community 123 years later. If you’re in Braddock you can stop by for a tour of this historic spot for the reasonable price of $2.00 (deals like that are hard to find). There is a monument to James Anderson at the library that reads:
“ To Colonel James Anderson, Founder of Free Libraries in Western Pennsylvania. He opened his Library to working boys and upon Saturday afternoons acted as librarian, thus dedicating not only his books but himself to the noble work. This monument is erected in grateful remembrance by Andrew Carnegie, one of the "working boys" to whom were thus opened the precious treasures of knowledge and imagination through which youth may ascend (Colonel Anderson and books, n.d.).”
A good reminder that you never know how a small act of kindness may ripple forward in the world and do the greatest good.
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