American Art Collaborative

American industrialist Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) grew immensely wealthy from his Pennsylvania steel factories, which he established in the 1870s. He once wrote that “a man who dies rich dies disgraced” and used his fortune to fund a number of projects for the public good, including the famous Carnegie libraries that were built in cities across the United States. The inscription on Paul Manship’s medal, “For the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding,” reflects Carnegie’s philanthropic vision