From the minutes of the May 6, 1902 Library Board of Trustees' meeting acknowledging the receipt of a letter from Andrew Carnegie"s assistant announcing the library had been approved the requested $60,000 to build a new library.

Andrew Carnegie (Kar-NAY-gee), considered one of the world’s wealthiest men was one of its greatest philanthropists . Born in Dunfermline, Scotland, on November 25, 1835, he was the first son of William Carnegie, a linen weaver and local leader of the Chartists (who sought to improve the conditions of working-class life in Great Britain), and of Margaret Carnegie, daughter of Thomas Morrison, a shoemaker and political and social reformer.

Emigrating with his family to Allegheny, Pennsylvania in 1848 due to a decline in the family’s business, Carnegie became a member of the working class by the age of 13 finding employment in a cotton factory. Taking advantage of the generosity of an Allegheny citizen who opened his library to local working boys, he began his lifelong love of reading and learning and, came to profoundly value the place of libraries in the education of a community.

A shrewd investment in a sleeping car company during the 1850s led to Carnegie's early success in the railroad business. During the Civil War he invested in oil, worked in transportation for the U.S. War Department and became involved in the iron and steel business. By 1888 he owned control of the Homestead Steel Works and other manufacturing plants, which he eventually merged into the Carnegie Steel Company. In 1901 Carnegie Steel combined with the U.S. Steel Corporation and Carnegie sold out to J.P. Morgan for $480 million, becoming the richest man in the world.

Believing that the rich should use their money to better humanity while they were alive, Carnegie spent his retirement as a philanthropist and donated more than $350 million to further public education, build libraries and lobby for international peace. He created the Carnegie Corporation of New York, endowing it with $125 million to support benefactions after his death. But the project that spoke most deeply to him was public libraries. Beginning in 1881, he gave the first library gift to his birthplace, in Dunfermline, Scotland. With only two stipulations, that the city or town must provide a central site for the library and that funding for staff, materials, and upkeep be at least 10% of his gift, cities and towns across the United States jumped at this offer. Eventually, Carnegie’s gifts totaled more than $65 million dollars to public libraries in the United States.

Taunton too was a recipient of Andrew Carnegie’s generosity. In May 1902, the Taunton Public Library Board of Trustees received a letter from Andrew Carnegie’s assistant, James Bertram, noting the approval of the Trustees’ request of $60,000 to build a public library. The requirements that Mr. Carnegie applied to the gift were well known: a suitable site must be found for the grand building and a sum of no less than $6,000 a year be appropriated by the City Council for the staffing, maintenance and collection development of the library. Once the architectural design of the library was accepted, the City Council petitioned Mr. Carnegie for an additional $10,000 to meet their goal. He complied and upped his stipulation of funding from $6,000 to $7,000 per year. The City accepted. In November 1904 the City of Taunton opened the doors to our present library at 12 Pleasant Street. This Portrait of Mr. Carnegie hangs in the front lobby.

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