A bit of history

At the end of 1920, the Carnegie Endowment granted 100,000 dollars to the Serbian government for the construction of a library in Serbia. It should be noted that the decision was made on the initiative of the two prominent Serbs who at the time lived in the USA. Those were Slavko Grujuc (1871–1937), a diplomat, an MP in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin (1854–1935), a renowned physics professor at the Columbia University. Pavle Popovic (as an initiator), Veselin Cajkanovic and Aleksandar Belic, all three of them the renowned professors at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade and great Serbian scientists, were the members of the Commission for the Foundation of the University Library. Foundation-stone laying ceremony was held on June 23, 1921, when Prince regent Alexander laid the charter on parchment in the foundation-stone of the building. The Library officially opened on May 24, 1926, on St. Cyril and Methodius Day.

Who was Andrew Carnegie?

Andrew Carnegie (November 25, 1835 – August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans in history.

He became a leading philanthropist in the United States, Great Britain, and the British Empire. During the last 18 years of his life, he gave away around $350 million (roughly $6.5 billion in 2024), almost 90 percent of his fortune, to charities, foundations and universities. His 1889 article “The Gospel of Wealth” called on the rich to use their wealth to improve society, expressed support for progressive taxation and an estate tax, and stimulated a wave of philanthropy.

Among his many philanthropic efforts, Carnegie funded some 3,000 libraries, located in 47 U.S. states, and also in Canada, Britain, Ireland, Belgium, Serbia, France, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the West Indies, and Fiji. He also donated £50,000 to help set up the University of Birmingham in 1899.

Biography

Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland. He immigrated to what is now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States with his parents in 1848 at the age of 12. Carnegie started working as a telegrapher. By the 1860s he had investments in railroads, railroad sleeping cars, bridges, and oil derricks. He accumulated further wealth as a bond salesman, raising money for American enterprise in Europe. He built Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Steel Company, which he sold to J. P. Morgan in 1901 for $303,450,000; it formed the basis of the U.S. Steel Corporation.

Carnegie devoted the remainder of his life to large-scale philanthropy, with special emphasis on building local libraries, working for world peace, education, and scientific research. He built Carnegie Hall in New York City, founded the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Carnegie Institution for Science, Carnegie Mellon University, etc.