Andrew Carnegie

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Andrew Carnegie : biography

November 25, 1835 – August 11, 1919

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. The fraternity’s mission reflects Carnegie’s values by developing young men to share their talents to create harmony in the world.

By the standards of 19th century tycoons, Carnegie was not a particularly ruthless man but a humanitarian with enough acquisitiveness to go in the ruthless pursuit of money;Krause, Paul. The Battle for Homestead 1880–1892, p. 233, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992 ISBN 978-0-8229-5466-8 on the other hand, the contrast between his life and the lives of many of his own workers and of the poor, in general, was stark. "Maybe with the giving away of his money," commented biographer Joseph Wall, "he would justify what he had done to get that money.". The American Experience. PBS.

To some, Carnegie represents the idea of the American dream. He was an immigrant from Scotland who came to America and became successful. He is not only known for his successes but his enormous amounts of philanthropist works, not only to charities but also to promote democracy and independence to colonized countries.Swetnam, George. (1980) Twayne Publishers.

Death

Carnegie received the honorary Doctor of Laws (DLL) 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.

  • The dinosaur Diplodocus carnegiei (Hatcher) was named for Carnegie after he sponsored the expedition that discovered its remains in the Morrison Formation (Jurassic) of Utah. Carnegie was so proud of "Dippi" that he had casts made of the bones and plaster replicas of the whole skeleton donated to several museums in Europe and South America. The original fossil skeleton is assembled and stands in the Hall of Dinosaurs at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
  • After the Spanish American War, Carnegie offered to donate $20 million to the Philippines so they could buy their independence.
  • Carnegie, Pennsylvania, and Carnegie, Oklahoma, were named in his honor.
  • The Saguaro cactus’s scientific name, Carnegiea gigantea, is named after him.
  • The Carnegie Medal for the best children’s literature published in the UK was established in his name.
  • The Carnegie Faculty of Sport and Education, at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK, is named after him.
  • The concert halls in Dunfermline and New York are named after him.
  • At the height of his career, Carnegie was the second-richest person in the world, behind only John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil.
  • Disney’s Scrooge McDuck is thought to have been inspired by Carnegie.
  • Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh was named after Carnegie, who founded the institution as the Carnegie Technical Schools.
  • Lauder College (named after his uncle who encouraged him to get an education) in the Halbeth area of Dunfermline was renamed Carnegie College in 2007.
  • A street in Belgrade (Serbia), next to the Belgrade University Library which is one of the Carnegie libraries, is named in his honor.
  • An American high school, Carnegie Vanguard High School in Houston, Texas, is named after him"". Houston Independent School District. Retrieved September 24, 2008. "It is named for Andrew Carnegie, the famous Scottish immigrant who rose to become a steel tycoon and philanthropist."

Carnegie’s personal papers reside at the Library of Congress Manuscript Division. The Carnegie Collections of the Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library consist of the archives of the following organizations founded by Carnegie: The Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY); The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP); the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (CFAT);The Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs (CCEIA). These collections deal primarily with Carnegie philanthropy and have very little personal material related to Carnegie. Carnegie Mellon University and the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh jointly administer the Andrew Carnegie Collection of digitized archives on Carnegie’s life.