Reflecting on business titan Andrew Carnegie’s forgotten influence on Utah education

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Editor’s be aware: This text is part of a collection reviewing Utah and U.S. historical past for KSL.com’s Historic part.

SALT LAKE CITY — Libraries existed in Utah within the nineteenth century, however they weren’t like those you’ll find in the present day.

Lots of the libraries constructed earlier than the twentieth century had been faith- or community-led, whereas some had been privately owned, some had been based by civic golf equipment and a few had been subscription-based. In Smithfield’s case, its lone library might be discovered within the tithing workplace of a constructing owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

That each one modified with the assistance of an unlikely determine: Andrew Carnegie. The legendary enterprise titan had a passion without cost public libraries, which led to a grant program that finally sparked the creation of almost two dozen libraries all throughout Utah earlier than he died in 1919, amongst 1000’s extra within the U.S. and world.

“These Carnegie libraries that we see actually had been the primary large wave of library development in Utah,” stated Roger Roper, the deputy state preservation officer for the Utah State Historic Preservation Workplace.

This wasn’t essentially a well-liked program when it was first launched but it surely definitely left an impression on communities for over a century. Roper mirrored on the historical past, impression and longevity of this system in Utah by way of a presentation Wednesday as part of a state preservation workplace collection celebrating Nationwide Historic Preservation Month.

The origin of Carnegie libraries

Chances are high you discovered about Carnegie in class. He made a reputation for himself by way of the expansion of the metal and different industrial industries, utilizing vertical integration monopoly to amass a fortune that might be value about $12.5 billion in in the present day’s {dollars}.

He spent the ultimate few a long time of his life spending that cash on varied neighborhood wants, donating greater than $300 million to hospitals, parks, universities, church buildings and public libraries up till his loss of life in 1919. About $56 million went to libraries alone, starting with one in-built his Scottish hometown in 1883.

Carnegie included public libraries as a result of he credited them for his schooling, particularly rising up as an immigrant in Pennsylvania. He wrote in “The Gospel of Wealth,” revealed in 1889, that he believed public libraries had been the reply to the query of the most effective reward to a neighborhood, “offered the neighborhood will settle for and preserve it as a public establishment.”

“It’s, little question, potential that my very own private expertise might have led me to worth a free library past all different types of beneficence,” he wrote.

The cash he put towards libraries, by way of the Carnegie Library Grant Program, in the end helped lead to 2,509 libraries throughout the globe on the flip of the twentieth century, together with 1,679 in the US. Twenty-three of those got here to communities all throughout Utah, which implies it had the ninth-highest quantity of libraries within the nation per capita, Roper stated.

Although, it wasn’t all the time well-liked. One version of Harper’s Weekly in 1901 lambasted this system as nothing greater than an try for Carnegie to place his title on buildings throughout the nation, particularly as a result of he did not present the books or workers for the buildings.

How Utah’s Carnegie libraries got here to be

Roper first discovered about these libraries when he and a colleague compiled the paperwork so as to add 10 of the buildings to the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations again in 1984. It led him to check extra into the historical past of Carnegie libraries.

What he discovered is candidates — sometimes cities and cities — submitted proposals to the Carnegie Company, the place they’d work with secretary James Bertram. Carnegie had a hand approving designs early in this system however finally trusted Bertram to function the library program; he is the one who carried out a lot of the logistics for each applicant.

I believe the truth that we now have Carnegie libraries nonetheless working a century later demonstrates some sort of sturdiness in that philanthropic effort.

–Roger Roper, deputy state preservation officer for the Utah State Historic Preservation Workplace

Bartram’s “Notes on Library Buildings” offered mannequin ground plans and ideas that helped cities higher articulate what they needed out of their libraries, starting in 1911.

The cash granted relied on inhabitants to an extent, which is why Salt Lake Metropolis’s Chapman Department library garnered probably the most cash within the state ($25,000), whereas Tooele acquired the least cash ($5,000). Most of Carnegie’s donations in Utah had been between $10,000 and $12,000.

Communities must present a website for a constructing and decide to an annual working funds of not less than 10% of the grant quantity, which might go to hiring workers and filling the constructing with books.

“I believe a lot of the candidates from Utah adopted by way of,” Roper stated. “There have been not less than one or two that by no means fairly adopted by way of to get their precise grant, however largely it labored. Regardless that Mr. Bertram was sort of a stickler, he was additionally fair-minded and actually tried to work with a neighborhood to get the grant for them.”

Utah’s libraries adopted the identical designs for probably the most half. They had been sometimes rectangular or square-like buildings with “nice architectural element” within the classical revival design, Roper added. Their interiors weren’t very opulent however they weren’t bland both, typically that includes artwork.

“They’re actually little gems within the architectural panorama of Utah,” he stated.

Finally, Bertram needed to make sure communities this system was working appropriately, so this system’s officers employed somebody to go to the entire totally different Carnegie libraries, together with Utah’s, between 1915 and 1916. The report discovered small cities struggled to satisfy the ten% requirement, library workers wanted higher coaching and lots of websites weren’t ideally suited for communities.

The latter critique wasn’t as a lot of a problem in Utah, as its libraries had been typically positioned on the middle of a city. The creation of the Utah Library Affiliation in 1914 offered coaching for native librarians.

However the report additionally discovered that the libraries offered studying supplies and neighborhood assets that in any other case wouldn’t have existed on the time.

The legacy left behind

With the good thing about hindsight, the timing of the Carnegie libraries was crucial. The primary half of the twentieth century included a pair of worldwide wars, an enormous pandemic and the Nice Melancholy, that means there wasn’t “a variety of financial wiggle room” for communities to construct libraries on the time, Roper says.

“We see a number of of them that pop up throughout that post-Carnegie interval however not lots,” he stated, noting the subsequent large library wave would not come till the Fifties and Sixties. Adjustments to native and state coverage offered extra assist for libraries, too.

The remaining libraries have saved with the instances, providing not simply books however education schemes and computer systems.

Sixteen of the buildings stay in the present day; most nonetheless function libraries whereas others have been repurposed for different wants. Fourteen of the buildings are actually on the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations.

That is to not say these constructions come with out flaws. Roper is fast to level on the market are points the buildings face, similar to seismic dangers, although their easy designs sometimes fare higher in earthquakes than extra complicated designs. There are additionally accessibility points associated to designs and website limitations to stop enlargement.

All issues thought of, Roper believes the lasting impression of offering library entry for a lot of Utahns for over a century and counting proves the success of this system. It helped enhance the academic facet for folks, no matter the place they lived within the state.

“I believe someplace that Andrew Carnegie and James Bertram can be actually completely happy and proud to know that their imaginative and prescient for small-town libraries has been realized,” he stated. “In all our libraries right here, when individuals who cared obtained concerned, made the buildings and the assets they’d work for the betterment of the neighborhood. … I believe the truth that we now have Carnegie libraries nonetheless working a century later demonstrates some sort of sturdiness in that philanthropic effort.”