Andrew Carnegie Strikes Back

"CARNEGIE BUILDING: Completed in 1904 with a gift from Penn State trustee and industrialist Andrew Carnegie, it was the university's first library building. It typifies more than 2,000 college and community libraries built with donations from Carnegie."

If you know a lot about American history and industrialization, you've probably heard the name of Andrew Carnegie before. If you grew up in the Pittsburgh area, the original center of Andrew Carnegie's operations, you've probably hoped that you would never hear the name of Andrew Carnegie again. Unfortunately, it is impossible to escape Andrew Carnegie. He was just too rich and powerful.

For those who don't know, Andrew Carnegie was a businessman who immigrated to America from Scotland in 1848, as America's period of economic growth and industrial revolution was just beginning. From a relatively humble start he worked his way through various industries to eventually become the head of a massive steel-producing company, which made him one of the wealthiest and most influential people in the country, and indeed the world. Next to his massive amounts of money, Carnegie was also notorious for gaining said money through some morally dubious practices. His attempts to monopolize the steel industry and exercise total control over the supply chain of his steel production would probably be banned now. One incident that particularly marred Carnegie's reputation was the Homestead Strike. Carnegie publicly claimed to be for labor unions and against strikebreaking, but when unrest began to occur among his own workers, he left them in the hands of a subordinate, Henry Clay Frick, who responded to the strike with armed force rather than negotiation. The incident resulted in multiple deaths of both police and workers, and while the strike ultimately failed, Carnegie faced massive backlash for his irresponsibility.

Possibly due to wanting to atone for this infamy (or at least pretend that it didn't happen), near the end of his life Andrew Carnegie adopted the philosophy that "the man who dies rich dies disgraced"; he believed that it would be wrong to keep his wealth to himself, and that he should instead use this money to improve the lives and chances of other people. To this end, he sold his steel company (which went on to form U.S. Steel), announced his retirement from business, and devoted the remainder of his life to philanthropy. It's important to note that Carnegie did not just donate his money to any and every cause; his theory was that the best way to improve people's lives was to give them the tools they needed to build themselves up, just as he believed he had done with his own life. For this reason, Carnegie gave vast sums of money toward building over 2,500 libraries around America, with the logic that improving people's knowledge and education would inspire them to better themselves and enable them to succeed. As you can probably guess, the Carnegie Building at Penn State is one of those libraries. Despite no longer being a library, it still bears Carnegie's name; presumably he wanted the world to know exactly who its generous donor was.

Penn State's Carnegie Building bears one distinction of note. It seems that Carnegie decided to begin construction of the building at around the same time another wealthy businessman, one Charles M. Schwab, also sought to show off his wealth and generosity by building his own structure at Penn State. This would of course become the Schwab Auditorium, which I may cover in its own post in the future. Naturally, both being showoffs with something to prove and lots to lose, as well as being close friends and business associates, Carnegie and Schwab competed to make a bigger and better building than the other man, and thus assert their dominance. Or so the story goes. OnwardState.com has written a wonderful article about this story and the friendship between Schwab and Carnegie which is definitely worth a read, as long as you're not the sort who is annoyed by the term "bromance". (If you didn't click the link and are still wondering: Schwab's building was the bigger one by about 116 square feet. Better luck next time, Carnegie.)

As for the Carnegie Building itself, it's seen its fair share of change since construction was completed in 1904. Starting out as Penn State's first devoted library (Old Main having served as a library in the meantime), the building was eventually renovated and used by the music programs for office and storage space, as well as for rehearsals. It received a name change from Carnegie Library to Carnegie Hall, which meant that if you were in Penn State's music programs from the '40s to the '60s, you could tell people that you had performed in Carnegie Hall and not be wrong. After this period, the School of Journalism set up in the building, and the Daily Collegian had its headquarters here. It was probably around this time that the building became known as Carnegie Building so that nobody would ever have to change the name again. By the early 1990s, the School of Journalism had moved out and the School of Communications had moved in. That college is the one which occupies the building to this day.

Andrew Carnegie would likely be pleased to see where his namesake building at Penn State has gone over the years. It has always remained a bastion of learning of various kinds while keeping his name to remind generations beyond him of his philanthropy. The subject that now holds the floor is one whose rapid recent growth in importance and technology has drawn comparison to the same industrial revolution that made Carnegie himself so rich and famous. Perhaps another Andrew Carnegie will rise to prominence from Penn State's educational programs? Stay tuned for next week, when I'll unveil my blueprints for the "Swanson Building"...