The mission was born in Allegheny City, Pa., where Carnegie worked as a bobbin boy in a textile mill - his job was to fill the bobbins with thread and oil them for the machines. Those were the visionary keystones of Carnegie's library mission. 'It went from being for just the wealthy elite landowners and planters to actually being a service for the entire county that everybody has access to,' he says. This was one of the first really beautiful public buildings,' he says. 'This went in well before the monumental limestone and marble buildings of Pennsylvania Avenue, Constitution Avenue. Washington writer Paul Dickson, author of The Library in America, says the marble palace was an early and imposing Capitol institution. During the Depression, D.C.'s Carnegie Library was called 'the intellectual breadline.' No one had any money, so you went there to feed your brain.

It opened in 1903 to women, children, all races - African-Americans remember when it was the only place downtown where they could use the bathrooms. The building was 'dedicated to the diffusion of knowledge.'

Inscribed above the doorway are the words: Science, Poetry, History.

Paul Dickson, author of The Library in America, says this library was 'one of the first really beautiful public buildings' in the city.Ĭarnegie donated $300,000 to build Washington, D.C.'s oldest library - a beautiful beaux arts building that dates back to 1903. OL891762W Page_number_confidence 97.19 Pages 934 Partner Innodata Pdf_module_version 0.0.17 Ppi 360 Rcs_key 24143 Republisher_date 20211222141419 Republisher_operator Republisher_time 1190 Scandate 20211215175129 Scanner Scanningcenter cebu Scribe3_search_catalog isbn Scribe3_search_id 9780143112440 Tts_version 4.The Carnegie Library in Washington, D.C., dates back to 1903. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 16:07:31 Bookplateleaf 0002 Boxid IA40315520 Camera USB PTP Class Camera Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier

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