The man who established Carnegie
Steel and then sold it at age sixty five to
devote his life to
philanthropy. He is best known for advocating the idea that the
surplus money of those whose
needs were met should consider that money a
resource.
One of his goals was to establish a free library in every community which he pursued pretty actively to build over two thousand libraries in the process. His reasoning was that all people should have access to self-education. Carnegie spent fifty six million dollars on this program before it ended in 1917.
The Carnegie Corporation was founded to continue Andrew Carnegie's work. Its central mission is to improve library services but has also branched out to provide support for adult education programs and fine arts education.