Last updated:
1008b. Carnegie Library, Anglesea Street, Cork, circa 1900. Source: Kieran McCarthy
The life and death of a pioneering philanthropist
Published:
Last updated:
Mon 26 Jul 2021, 4:17 AM
On 11 August 1919, almost one hundred years ago, a good friend of Cork’s library service passed away in Lennox, Massachusetts, USA.
Mr Andrew Carnegie, funder of many Irish libraries and Cork City Library passed away after a brief illness – after contracting bronchial pneumonia. Mr Carnegie was born at Dunfermline in Scotland on 25 November 1835 and emigrated to the United States in 1848.
He settled in Pittsburgh and was for 13 years in the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. He worked for some time as an iron moulder, rising stop by step until he controlled great steel rolling mills in that city.