Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist whose life ran through some of the most forceful changes of the late nineteenth century. Born on November 25, 1835, in Dunfermline, Scotland, he immigrated with his parents to what is now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1848, when he was 12. He began in hard factory work, became a telegraph messenger and operator, moved into railroads, and then helped lead the expansion of the American steel industry. By the time he sold Carnegie Steel in 1901, he had become one of the richest Americans in history.

Carnegie’s beginnings were crowded and uncertain. He was born in a typical weaver’s cottage with one main room, shared in part with another weaver’s family. His father, William Carnegie, had once run a successful weaving business, but hard times for handloom weavers and hunger in Scotland pushed the family toward America. His mother, Margaret, helped support the household by assisting her brother and selling potted meats at her “sweetie shop.” In Pittsburgh, Carnegie’s first job was as a bobbin boy in a cotton mill, working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, for $1.20 a week.

Several early experiences shaped how Carnegie thought about work, learning, and opportunity. His maternal uncle, George Lauder Sr., introduced him to the writings of Robert Burns and to Scottish historical figures such as Robert the Bruce, William Wallace, and Rob Roy. In Pittsburgh, Carnegie became a telegraph messenger boy in 1849 and memorized the locations of businesses and the faces of important men. He quickly learned to translate telegraph signals by ear. His passion for reading grew when Colonel James Anderson opened his personal library of 400 volumes to working boys on Saturday nights. Carnegie later wrote that if wealth ever came to him, he wanted other poor boys to have similar opportunities.

In 1853, Thomas A. Scott of the Pennsylvania Railroad hired Carnegie as a secretary and telegraph operator at $4.00 a week. Carnegie saw greater prospects there than at the telegraph company, and on December 1, 1859, he officially became superintendent of the Western Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. By the 1860s, he had investments in railroads, railroad sleeping cars, bridges, and oil derricks. He also accumulated wealth as a bond salesman, raising money for American enterprise in Europe. His greatest business achievement was building Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Steel Company, which he sold to J. P. Morgan in 1901 for $303,450,000. That company formed the basis of the U.S. Steel Corporation.

After selling Carnegie Steel, Carnegie surpassed John D. Rockefeller as the richest American of the time, but he spent the last 18 years of his life giving much of that fortune away. He donated around $350 million, almost 90 percent of his wealth, to charities, foundations, and universities, with special emphasis on local libraries, world peace, education, and scientific research. He funded Carnegie Hall in New York City and the Peace Palace in The Hague, and founded or supported institutions including 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.

Carnegie’s 1889 article “The Gospel of Wealth” called on the rich to use their wealth to improve society, supported progressive taxation and an estate tax, and helped stimulate a wave of philanthropy. That is why his words still carry weight on questions of ambition, money, and responsibility. When he said, “No man becomes rich unless he enriches others,” the line fit the central tension of his life: a man who rose through industry, then argued that private fortune should be turned back toward public good.