Certificate of Burgess and Guild Brother

Category

Library Item

Item no

35466

Title

Admittance of Andrew Carneigie to a Burgess and Guild Brother

Description

Inscription reads:
At Edinburgh
Twenty fourth day of May Eighteen Hundred and Eighty Seven
Which day
The Right Honourable
Sir Thomas Clark, Baronet
Lord Provost
William Anderson,Robert Turnbull,John Walsh[?]
James Alexander, Russell and George Roberts Esquire Bailies
John Boyd Esquire, City Treasurer
John White Esquire, Convenor of the Trades
And remnant members of the Town Council, being assembled in
The Council Chambers
On the motion of the Lord Provost seconded by
Bailie Anderson
Admitted and received and hereby Admit & Receive
Andrew Carnegie Esquire
A Native of Scotland
A distinguished citizen of the United States of America
A man with the widest sympathy
With every movement
Having for its object the moral and intellectual advancement of the people
And as being in especial manner associated with the establishment of
A free public library in Edinburgh
A Burgess and Guild brother of the city
Extracted from the journal records by me
Wm Skinner [?] Town Clark

Artist / maker

MacLean, Kevin

Date

2003

Size

16.7 x 14.7 cm

Type

Document; Wood

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

Andrew Carnegie (25.11.1835 - 11.08.1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and one of the most important philanthropists of his era.

Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, and emigrated to the United States with his parents in 1848. 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 Elbert H. Gary's Federal Steel Company and several smaller companies to create U.S. Steel, which he sold to J.P. Morgan in 1901 for $480 million.

With his fortune he devoted the remainder of his life to large-scale philanthropy, with special emphasis on local libraries, world peace, education and scientific research.

Andrew Carnegie founded the Carnegie UK Trust which was established in 1913.

Edinburgh Central Public Library is, strictly speaking, located on the Cowgate. It rises up four floors from this level to its main entrance on George IV Bridge. It was designed by George Washington Browne, and built in 1887-90. It was built with money donated by the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Central Library acts as the community library for the centre of the city. It also has several subject dedicated sections: the Fine Art Library; Music Library; Edinburgh and Scottish Collection, and the Reference Library.

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