Andrew Carnegie

A stunning and exceptionally well-preserved 7" x 9" brown-toned platinum matte photograph of philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, mounted on a 10" x 12" dark mat backing on which he has handwritten the guiding philosophy of his life's philanthropy: "Peace on Earth among Men Good Will / Andrew Carnegie". Also hand-signed in white in the lower right corner is "Davis and Sanford Co. N.Y.," the prestigious studio founded in 1892 who catered mainly to photographing New York's social elite.

Wealth, later published as The Gospel of Wealth, is an essay written by Andrew Carnegie in 1889 that described the responsibility of philanthropy by the new upper class of self-made rich. The central thesis of Carnegie's essay was the peril of allowing large sums of money to be passed into the hands of persons or organizations ill-equipped mentally or emotionally to cope with them. As a result, the wealthy entrepreneur must assume the responsibility of distributing his fortune in a way that it will be put to good use, and not wasted on frivolous expenditure. In this he represented a captain of industry who had risen to power by his own hand and refused to worship wealth. The specific passage he references on this photograph is:

The man who dies leaving behind him millions of available wealth, which was his to administer during life, will pass away "unwept, unhonored and unsung".... Of such of these the public verdict will then be: "The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced." Such in my opinion is the true Gospel concerning Wealth, obedience to which is destined some day to solve the problem of the rich and the poor, and to bring "Peace on earth, among men good will."

Of worthy note in that spirit is the more recent development of the Giving Pledge, a campaign to encourage the wealthiest people in the United States to make a commitment to give most of their money to philanthropic causes. The campaign specifically targets billionaires and was made public in 2010 by the two wealthiest men in the United States, billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.

Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, entrepreneur and a major philanthropist. Carnegie was born in Scotland and migrated to the United States as a child with his parents. 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 several other companies to create U.S. Steel. With the fortune he made from business and other investments, he founded the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Carnegie Mellon University, the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Carnegie devoted the remainder of his life to large-scale philanthropy, donating most of his money to establish numerous libraries, schools, and universities throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and other countries, as well as a pension fund for former employees. He is often regarded as the second-richest man in history after John D. Rockefeller.

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