Andrew Carnegie 1835 – 1919

Biography

Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist who built the largest steel empire of his age. Born in Dunfermline in 1835, he emigrated with his family to Pennsylvania at thirteen and worked his way up from a bobbin boy in a cotton mill to a telegraph operator and then a railway superintendent. Investing shrewdly, he built Carnegie Steel into the dominant American producer, pioneering the Bessemer process and vertical integration. In 1901 he sold the company to J. P. Morgan for nearly five hundred million dollars and devoted the rest of his life to giving his fortune away, funding more than twenty-five hundred public libraries, Carnegie Hall, and universities. His essay The Gospel of Wealth argued that the rich must use their wealth for the public good. His libraries and institutions still serve millions, and his example shaped modern philanthropy, inspiring later generations of wealthy donors to give while living.