Andrew Carnegie had a motto – “Let There Be Light” – inscribed over the entrance to his libraries. Outside virtually every Carnegie Library a lamppost or lantern symbolized this enlightenment.

Carnegie libraries were built with money donated by Scottish-American businessman Andrew Carnegie. Over 2,500 Carnegie libraries were built, including public and university libraries. Carnegie earned the nickname “Patron Saint of Libraries.”

Each library’s architectural style was chosen by the community and was typically simple and formal, welcoming patrons to enter through a prominent doorway, nearly always accessed via a staircase. The staircase was intended to show that the person was elevating himself.

When the last grant was made in 1919, there were 3,500 libraries in the United States, nearly half of them paid for by Carnegie.

In the early 20th century, a Carnegie library was the most imposing structure in hundreds of small American communities from Maine to California – and Tekamah.

More than half of the Carnegie Libraries in the United States still serve their communities as libraries over a century after their construction.

By 1920 Nebraska had 69 Carnegie Libraries, and ranked 7th in the nation behind Indiana (165), California (142), Ohio (111), New York (106), Illinois (106), and Iowa (101). Alaska, Delaware and Rhode Island are the only states that do not have a Carnegie Library. To learn more about the history of Carnegie Libraries in Nebraska, go to Nebraska and Carnegie Libraries (12mb pdf download) by Marguerite Nesbit, written in 1930.

And also visit Nebraska Carnegie Libraries.

How did Tekamah get an Andrew Carnegie Library?


Andrew Carnegie, 1835-1919