Portrait of Andrew Carnegie
Scope and Contents
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Andrew Carnegie's birth, the Carnegie Corporation of New York distributed Carnegie's framed portrait in 1935 to all libraries in America that had received a Carnegie grant for a library building.
Andrew Carnegie gifted $75,000 through a request made to him by Alice French of Davenport, Iowa. They were acquaintences, having met on a trip through Europe in the late 19th Century. The electorate of the City of Davenport committed to supporting the Library annually for maintenance and operations.
The cornerstone for Davenport's building was laid in 1902 and the building was dedicated May 11, 1904. When built, this three story building was the largest Carnegie library west of the Mississippi River. Due to an unstable foundation the building was demolished in November 1966 and replace by a building designed by Edward Durrell Stone, designer of the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
The Davenport Public Library archives does not contain any information relating to receipt of a Carnegie portrait in 1935. This particular portrait was gifted to the donor by William "Bill" George Asp (1943-2021), a faculty member of the University of Iowa Library School in the 1970s. It is not known how he obtained it. Mr. Asp was pleased to leave the portrait to a Carnegie Library that did not have a portrait.
The original painting was done by F. Luis Mora in 1905.
Dates
- Creation: 1935
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Materials are available for use in the Richardson-Sloane Special Collections Center only.
Request permission before copying materials.
Personal digital cameras and scanners are allowed in the Richardson-Sloane Special Collections Center on a case-by-case basis. The items that a researcher may want to scan or photograph must be examined and evaluated for physical condition, copyright issues, and donor restrictions by staff.
Copyright restrictions may apply; please consult Special Collections staff for further information.
The copyright law of the United States (title 17, United States Code) governs the making of reproductions of copyrighted material.
Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a reproduction. One of these specific conditions is that the reproduction is not to be “used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research.” If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a reproduction for purposes in excess of “fair use,” that user may be liable for copyright infringement.
Biographical / Historical
Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, on November 25, 1835. The son of a weaver, he came with his family to the United States in 1848 and settled in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. At age thirteen, Carnegie went to work as a bobbin boy in a cotton mill. He then moved rapidly through a succession of jobs with Western Union and the Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1865, he resigned to establish his own business enterprises and eventually organized the Carnegie Steel Company, which launched the steel industry in Pittsburgh. At age sixty-five, he sold the company to J. P. Morgan for $480 million and devoted the rest of his life to his philanthropic activities and writing. He created seven philanthropic and educational organizations in the United States, including Carnegie Corporation of New York, and several more in Europe. One of Carnegie's lifelong interests was the establishment of free public libraries to make available to everyone a means of self-education. During his lifetime, Carnegie gave away over $350 million. He died in Lenox, Massachusetts, on August 11, 1919.
Extent
1 portraits (in frame on wall.)
Language of Materials
English
Physical Location
Framed and hanging on north wall in Richardson-Sloane Special Collections Center
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Richardson-Sloane Special Collections Center Repository
321 Main Street
Davenport IA 52801-1490 United States
specialcollections@davenportlibrary.com