From the Collections of the Pennsylvania Department, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

From 1896 to 1925 the number of public libraries in the United States exploded, growing from about 900 to almost 3,900. Much of the credit lies with steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, who provided grants for the construction of 1,679 libraries in 49 states -- only Rhode Island was somehow left out! About 70 percent of the Carnegie libraries were built in small towns with fewer than 10,000 people -- with the first of the typical Carnegie-funded libraries being constructed in Fairfield, Iowa.

Carnegie's philanthropy was premised on a belief (expressed in his book, The Gospel of Wealth) that all personal wealth beyond that required to supply the needs of one's family should be regarded as a trust fund to be administered for the benefit of the community.

As Theodore Jones notes in Carnegie Libraries Across America: A Public Legacy (John Wiley & Sons, 1997), "Carnegie libraries played a formative role in education, as well as civic politics, finance, and artistic and social developments. ... Carnegie's grant stipulations fostered the now-unquestioned concept that it is a governmental duty to provide tax monies to support public libraries. ... In many towns, Carnegie libraries were the only large public buildings in town, and they became hubs of social activities like concerts, lectures, and meetings."

The Carnegie grants were an early example of the now common practice of requiring local matching commitments. As Jones explains, "to be eligible, a community had to demonstrate the need for a public library, provide the building site, and promise to support library services and maintenance with tax funds equal to 10 percent of the grant annually. Thus, a $10,000 grant required the town to dedicate $1,000 in support each year. ... In the long term, these stipulations made public libraries a civic responsibility, just like schools and police protection."

While Carnegie provided the construction funds, each community was responsible for the design of its library. Many cities and towns hired top notch architects, who designed beautiful structures, most of which still stand today as centerpieces of the community. Most of the library postcards you'll view on these pages are, in fact, Carnegie libraries (we've put an * next to them in the index).

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