Carnegie, Andrew 1835-1919
US industrialist and philanthropist

He was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, the son of a weaver who emigrated to Pittsburgh in 1848. After several jobs, including factory hand, telegraphist, and railway clerk, Andrew resigned from the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1865 to found his first company, which grew into the largest iron and steel works in the USA. He retired in 1901, a multimillionaire, to Skibo Castle in Sutherland, Scotland, and died in Lenox, Massachusetts. His benefactions exceeded �70 million, including public libraries throughout the USA and Great Britain, Hero Funds, the Pittsburgh Carnegie Institute, the Washington Carnegie Institution, the Hague Peace Temple, the Pan-American Union Building, and substantial gifts to Scottish and US universities, Dunfermline, and numerous others. Besides an autobiography (1920), he wrote Triumphant Democracy (1886), The Gospel of Wealth (1889), and Problems of Today (1908).

Bibliography: Joseph F Wall, Andrew Carnegie (1970)