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. Research has not revealed the purpose of Paul Manship’s medal, but the classical figure and mythical winged horse seen on the obverse were popular motifs in American art of the 1930s and symbolized hope and heroic effort in the face of difficulties