133 Facts About Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist.

Andrew Carnegie became a leading philanthropist in the United States, Great Britain, and the British Empire.

Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, and emigrated to Pittsburgh, United States, with his parents in 1848 at age 12.

Andrew Carnegie started work as a telegrapher, and by the 1860s had investments in railroads, railroad sleeping cars, bridges, and oil derricks.

Andrew Carnegie accumulated further wealth as a bond salesman, raising money for American enterprise in Europe.

Andrew Carnegie devoted the remainder of his life to large-scale philanthropy, with special emphasis on building local libraries, world peace, education, and scientific research.

Andrew Carnegie funded Carnegie Hall in New York City, the Peace Palace in the Netherlands, founded the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Carnegie Institution for Science, Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, Carnegie Hero Fund, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, among others.

Andrew Carnegie was born to Margaret Morrison Carnegie and William Carnegie in Dunfermline, Scotland, in a typical weaver's cottage with only one main room, consisting of half the ground floor, which was shared with the neighboring weaver's family.

Andrew Carnegie was educated at the Free School in Dunfermline, a gift to the town from the philanthropist Adam Rolland of Gask.

Lauder's son, named George Lauder, grew up with Andrew Carnegie and became his business partner.

Andrew Carnegie's mother helped support the family by assisting her brother and by selling potted meats at her "sweetie shop", leaving her as the primary breadwinner.

In September 1848, Andrew Carnegie arrived with his family in Allegheny.

Andrew Carnegie's father struggled to sell his product on his own.

Andrew Carnegie's starting wage was $1.20 per week.

Andrew Carnegie's father quit his position at the cotton mill soon after, returning to his loom and removing him as breadwinner .

In 1849, Andrew Carnegie became a telegraph messenger boy in the Pittsburgh Office of the Ohio Telegraph Company, at $2.50 per week following the recommendation of his uncle.

Andrew Carnegie was a hard worker and would memorize all of the locations of Pittsburgh's businesses and the faces of important men.

Andrew Carnegie paid close attention to his work and quickly learned to distinguish the different sounds the incoming telegraph signals produced.

Andrew Carnegie developed the ability to translate signals by ear, without using the paper slip, and within a year was promoted to an operator.

Andrew Carnegie was a consistent borrower and a "self-made man" in both his economic development and his intellectual and cultural development.

Andrew Carnegie was so grateful to Colonel Anderson for the use of his library that he "resolved, if ever wealth came to me, [to see to it] that other poor boys might receive opportunities similar to those for which we were indebted to the nobleman".

Andrew Carnegie accepted the job with the railroad as he saw more prospects for career growth and experience there than with the telegraph company.

On December 1,1859, Andrew Carnegie officially became superintendent of the Western Division.

Andrew Carnegie then hired his sixteen-year-old brother Tom to be his personal secretary and telegraph operator.

Not only did Andrew Carnegie hire his brother, he hired his cousin, Maria Hogan, who became the first female telegraph operator in the country.

Andrew Carnegie learned much about management and cost control during these years, and from Scott in particular.

In 1855, Scott made it possible for Andrew Carnegie to invest $500 in the Adams Express Company, which contracted with the Pennsylvania to carry its messengers.

Reinvesting his returns in such inside investments in railroad-related industries, Andrew Carnegie slowly accumulated capital, the basis for his later success.

The young Andrew Carnegie continued to work for Pennsylvania's Tom Scott and introduced several improvements in the service.

Andrew Carnegie helped open the rail lines into Washington DC that the rebels had cut; he rode the locomotive pulling the first brigade of Union troops to reach Washington DC Following the defeat of Union forces at Bull Run, he personally supervised the transportation of the defeated forces.

Andrew Carnegie later joked that he was "the first casualty of the war" when he gained a scar on his cheek from freeing a trapped telegraph wire.

In 1864, Andrew Carnegie was one of the early investors in the Columbia Oil Company in Venango County, Pennsylvania.

Andrew Carnegie worked with others in establishing a steel rolling mill, and steel production and control of industry became the source of his fortune.

Andrew Carnegie had some investments in the iron industry before the war.

Andrew Carnegie worked to develop several ironworks, eventually forming the Keystone Bridge Works and the Union Ironworks, in Pittsburgh.

Andrew Carnegie used his connection to the two men to acquire contracts for his Keystone Bridge Company and the rails produced by his ironworks.

Andrew Carnegie gave stock in his businesses to Scott and Thomson, and the Pennsylvania was his best customer.

Andrew Carnegie was invited to many important social functions, which Carnegie exploited to his advantage.

Andrew Carnegie believed in using his fortune for others and doing more than making money.

Andrew Carnegie made his fortune in the steel industry, controlling the most extensive integrated iron and steel operations ever owned by an individual in the United States.

In 1883, Andrew Carnegie bought the rival Homestead Steel Works, which included an extensive plant served by tributary coal and iron fields, a 425-mile-long railway, and a line of lake steamships.

Andrew Carnegie combined his assets and those of his associates in 1892 with the launching of the Andrew Carnegie Steel Company.

Andrew Carnegie's success was due to his relationship with the railroad industries, which not only relied on steel for track, but were making money from steel transport.

Andrew Carnegie spent energy and resources lobbying Congress for a continuation of favorable tariffs from which he earned millions of dollars a year.

Andrew Carnegie tried to keep this information concealed, but legal documents released in 1900, during proceedings with the ex-chairman of Andrew Carnegie Steel, Henry Clay Frick, revealed how favorable the tariffs had been.

In 1901, Andrew Carnegie was 65 years of age and considering retirement.

Andrew Carnegie reformed his enterprises into conventional joint stock corporations as preparation for this.

Andrew Carnegie envisioned an integrated steel industry that would cut costs, lower prices to consumers, produce in greater quantities and raise wages to workers.

Andrew Carnegie concluded negotiations on March 2,1901, and formed the United States Steel Corporation.

The holdings were incorporated in the United States Steel Corporation, a trust organized by Morgan, and Andrew Carnegie retired from business.

Andrew Carnegie continued his business career; some of his literary intentions were fulfilled.

Andrew Carnegie befriended the English poet Matthew Arnold, the English philosopher Herbert Spencer, and the American humorist Mark Twain, as well as being in correspondence and acquaintance with most of the US Presidents, statesmen, and notable writers.

Andrew Carnegie constructed commodious swimming-baths for the people of his hometown in Dunfermline in 1879.

In 1881, Andrew Carnegie took his family, including his 70-year-old mother, on a trip to the United Kingdom.

The highlight was a return to Dunfermline, where Andrew Carnegie's mother laid the foundation stone of a Andrew Carnegie Library which he funded.

Andrew Carnegie's charm, aided by his wealth, afforded him many British friends, including Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone.

In 1886, Andrew Carnegie wrote his most radical work to date, entitled Triumphant Democracy.

In 1889, Andrew Carnegie published "Wealth" in the June issue of the North American Review.

Andrew Carnegie argued that the life of a wealthy industrialist should comprise two parts.

Andrew Carnegie opposed the annexation of the Philippines almost to the point of supporting William Jennings Bryan against McKinley in 1900.

In 1898, Andrew Carnegie tried to arrange independence for the Philippines.

In 1898 Andrew Carnegie joined the American Anti-Imperialist League, in opposition to the US annexation of the Philippines.

Andrew Carnegie had written about his views on social subjects and the responsibilities of great wealth in Triumphant Democracy and Gospel of Wealth.

Andrew Carnegie devoted the rest of his life to providing capital for purposes of public interest and social and educational advancement.

Andrew Carnegie provided $25,000 a year to the movement for spelling reform.

Andrew Carnegie turned over management of the library project by 1908 to his staff, led by James Bertram.

Andrew Carnegie's method was to provide funds to build and equip the library, but only on the condition that the local authority matched that by providing the land and a budget for operation and maintenance.

In total, Andrew Carnegie funded some 3,000 libraries, located in 47 US states, and in Canada, Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the West Indies, and Fiji.

Between 1886 and 1917, Andrew Carnegie reformed both library philanthropy and library design, encouraging a closer correspondence between the two.

Andrew Carnegie later contributed more to these and other schools.

Andrew Carnegie served on the Boards of Cornell University and Stevens Institute of Technology.

Andrew Carnegie was elected Lord Rector of University of St Andrews in December 1901, and formally installed as such in October 1902, serving until 1907.

Andrew Carnegie donated large sums of money to Dunfermline, the place of his birth.

Andrew Carnegie was a founding financial backer of Jeannette Thurber's National Conservatory of Music of America in 1885.

Andrew Carnegie built the music performing venue Carnegie Hall in New York City; it opened in 1891 and remained in his family until 1925.

Andrew Carnegie gave a further $10 million in 1913 to endow the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, a grant-making foundation.

Andrew Carnegie transferred to the trust the charge of all his existing and future benefactions, other than university benefactions in the United Kingdom.

Andrew Carnegie gave the trustees a wide discretion, and they inaugurated a policy of financing rural library schemes rather than erecting library buildings, and of assisting the musical education of the people rather than granting organs to churches.

In 1901, Andrew Carnegie established large pension funds for his former employees at Homestead and, in 1905, for American college professors.

Andrew Carnegie helped Washington create the National Negro Business League.

Andrew Carnegie contributed $1.5 million in 1903 for the erection of the Peace Palace at The Hague; and he donated $150,000 for a Pan-American Palace in Washington as a home for the International Bureau of American Republics.

Andrew Carnegie was honored for his philanthropy and support of the arts by initiation as an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity on October 14,1917, at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.

Andrew Carnegie was an immigrant from Scotland who came to America and became successful.

Andrew Carnegie is not only known for his successes but his huge amounts of philanthropic works, not only for charities but to promote democracy and independence to colonized countries.

Andrew Carnegie died on August 11,1919, in Lenox, Massachusetts, at his Shadow Brook estate, of Bronchial Pneumonia.

Andrew Carnegie had already given away $350,695,653 of his wealth.

Andrew Carnegie was buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York.

Andrew Carnegie is buried only a few yards away from union organizer Samuel Gompers, another important figure of industry in the Gilded Age.

Andrew Carnegie was one of more than 50 members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, which has been blamed for the Johnstown Flood that killed 2,209 people in 1889.

The Andrew Carnegie-donated library is owned by the Johnstown Area Heritage Association, and houses the Flood Museum.

Andrew Carnegie left on a trip to Scotland before the unrest peaked.

In doing so, Andrew Carnegie left mediation of the dispute in the hands of his associate and partner Henry Clay Frick.

However, Andrew Carnegie's reputation was permanently damaged by the Homestead events.

Andrew Carnegie strongly opposed the war and the subsequent imperialistic American takeover of the Philippines.

Andrew Carnegie hoped that Roosevelt would turn the Philippines free, not realizing he was more of an imperialist and believer in warrior virtues than President McKinley had been.

Nasaw argues that Roosevelt systematically deceived and manipulated Andrew Carnegie, and held the elderly man in contempt.

Andrew Carnegie did not want to marry during his mother's lifetime, instead choosing to take care of her in her illness towards the end of her life.

Andrew Carnegie bought Skibo Castle in Scotland, and made his home partly there and partly in his New York mansion located at 2 East 91st Street at Fifth Avenue.

Andrew Carnegie gave "formal allegiance" to the Republican Party, though he was said to be "a violent opponent of some of the most sacred doctrines" of the party.

Andrew Carnegie was involved in philanthropic causes, but he kept himself away from religious circles.

Andrew Carnegie wanted to be identified by the world as a "positivist".

Andrew Carnegie was highly influenced in public life by John Bright.

Andrew Carnegie wrote "The Gospel of Wealth", an article in which he stated his belief that the rich should use their wealth to help enrich society.

In that article, Andrew Carnegie expressed sympathy for the ideas of progressive taxation and an estate tax:.

Andrew Carnegie emphatically resisted government intrusion in commerce, as well as government-sponsored charities.

Andrew Carnegie believed the concentration of capital was essential for societal progress and should be encouraged.

Andrew Carnegie was an ardent supporter of commercial "survival of the fittest" and sought to attain immunity from business challenges by dominating all phases of the steel manufacturing procedure.

Andrew Carnegie felt that unions represented the narrow interest of the few while his actions benefited the entire community.

Andrew Carnegie did not think free-market competition necessitated competitive warfare.

Andrew Carnegie built his wealth in the steel industry by maintaining an extensively integrated operating system.

Andrew Carnegie bought out some regional competitors, and merged with others, usually maintaining the majority shares in the companies.

Andrew Carnegie went on to declare that public schools and colleges fill the heads of students with inept, useless knowledge and exclude useful knowledge.

Andrew Carnegie held that societal progress relied on individuals who maintained moral obligations to themselves and to society.

Andrew Carnegie urged other wealthy people to contribute to society in the form of parks, works of art, libraries and other endeavors that improve the community and contribute to the "lasting good".

Andrew Carnegie believed that the sons of prosperous businesspersons were rarely as talented as their fathers.

Andrew Carnegie strongly believed in this because he had risen from the bottom.

Andrew Carnegie believed the poor possessed an advantage over the wealthy because they receive greater attention from their parents and are taught better work ethics.

Andrew Carnegie's father left the Presbyterian church after a sermon on infant damnation, while, according to Carnegie, still remaining very religious on his own.

Andrew Carnegie prepared an address in which he professed a belief in "an Infinite and Eternal Energy from which all things proceed".

In 1913, at the dedication of the Peace Palace in The Hague, Andrew Carnegie predicted that the end of the war was as certain to come, and come soon, as day follows night.

In 1914, on the eve of the First World War, Andrew Carnegie founded the Church Peace Union, a group of leaders in religion, academia, and politics.

Andrew Carnegie did not oppose the annexation of the Hawaiian islands or Puerto Rico, but he opposed the annexation of the Philippines.

Andrew Carnegie believed that it involved a denial of the fundamental democratic principle, and he urged William McKinley to withdraw American troops and allow the Filipinos to live with their independence.

Andrew Carnegie gave away much of his fortunes to various peacekeeping agencies in order to keep them growing.

Andrew Carnegie believed that it is the effort and will of the people, that maintains the peace in international relations.

Andrew Carnegie believed that the combined country's power would maintain world peace and disarmament.

Beyond a gift of $10 million for peace promotion, Andrew Carnegie encouraged the "scientific" investigation of the various causes of war, and the adoption of judicial methods that should eventually eliminate them.

Andrew Carnegie believed that the Endowment exists to promote information on the nations' rights and responsibilities under existing international law and to encourage other conferences to codify this law.

Andrew Carnegie received the honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Glasgow in June 1901, and received the Freedom of the City of Glasgow "in recognition of his munificence" later the same year.

Andrew Carnegie received an honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Aberdeen in 1906.

Andrew Carnegie was awarded as Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Orange-Nassau by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands on August 25,1913.

Andrew Carnegie received July 1,1914 an honorary doctorate from the University of Groningen the Netherlands.

Andrew Carnegie was a frequent contributor to periodicals on labor issues.