Andrew Carnegie

A stunning and exceptionally well-preserved 7" x 9" platinum matte photograph of philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, mounted on a 10" x 12" dark mat backing on which he has signed his name and inscribed "For Mr. John W. DeVoy, Esq., Brooklyn / New York, December 18th, 1905." Also hand-signed by the photographer in white in the lower right corner is "Davis and Sanford," the prestigious studio founded in 1892 who catered mainly to photographing New York's social elite.

In 1901, the Brooklyn Public Library, the New York Public Library, and representatives of Andrew Carnegie reached an agreement which called for the construction of 20 branch libraries in the Borough of Brooklyn. A committee was appointed to select the sites for these buildings and to oversee their construction. The Carnegie Committee was chaired by David A. Boody (former mayor of Brooklyn and President of the Board of Trustees of the Brooklyn Public Library), with members Daniel W. McWillians, John W. DeVoy, R. Ross Appleton.

Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, entrepreneur and a major philanthropist. Carnegie was born in Scotland and migrated to the United States as a child with his parents. His first job in the United States was as a factory worker in a bobbin factory. Later on he became a bill logger for the owner of the company. Soon after he became a messenger boy. Eventually he progressed up the ranks of a telegraph company. He built Pittsburgh's Carnegie Steel Company, which was later merged with several other companies to create U.S. Steel. With the fortune he made from business and other investments, he founded the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Carnegie Mellon University, the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Carnegie devoted the remainder of his life to large-scale philanthropy, donating most of his money to establish numerous libraries, schools, and universities throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and other countries, as well as a pension fund for former employees. He is often regarded as the second-richest man in history after John D. Rockefeller.