Carnegie in Carolina
By Karl Galloway
It’s National Book Lovers Day! To celebrate we’re looking at some library history in North Carolina and beyond.
In the 1949–50 Carnegie Public Library of Winston-Salem report, Jeanette Trotter, the librarian at the time, wrote that the institution saw the highest use outside of 1931, the height of the Great Depression. Her point was, of course, that in troubled times (and good ones too) we turn to literature. Suffice to say, books provide escape, comfort, and a sense of purpose.
The library itself was part of a large network of public institutions driven by Andrew Carnegie, once the richest man in the world. As a young man he worked as a bobbin boy at a textile mill where his job was to load bobbins with thread and oil them for machines. He wanted to improve his position in life but could not afford the $2 subscription fee to a local library. After making his case in a letter of appeal published in The Pittsburgh Dispatch he was allowed to enter, free of charge. It was in this spirit that he would ultimately donate $60 million dollars to fund the development and construction of 1,689 public libraries across the country, public and free.
10 of these libraries were located in NC, including in Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Murphy, Hickory, Durham, and Greensboro. The city of Greensboro ultimately managed to gain funds to build a second library for African-Americans, which is now part of the Bennett College campus. The Carnegie buildings in Durham, Hendersonville, Hickory, Murphy, and Winston-Salem still stand, but none is used as a library.
If you’re familiar with these cities you may recognize the beautiful buildings, built in the Beaux Art style. While they are longer be used as libraries, they represent the basic ideal that Carnegie believed in, public and free access to books, research, and learning. Visit one in your hometown!
