Andrew Carnegie

1835 – 1919 · died at about 84^[1][2]

Business & Industry

Fun Facts About Andrew Carnegie

• Andrew Carnegie's first job was as a bobbin boy in a Pittsburgh cotton mill, changing spools of thread 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, for $1.20 a week.^[1]
• A dinosaur, Diplodocus carnegii, is named after Carnegie, who sponsored the expedition that found it and was so proud of "Dippy" that he gave replica skeletons to museums abroad.^[1]
• Carnegie gave $25,000 a year to the spelling reform movement, and his Simplified Spelling Board published a handbook written entirely in reformed spelling.^[1]
• As a teenage telegraph messenger boy, Carnegie learned to translate telegraph signals by ear, without using the paper slip.^[1]
• Carnegie funded some 3,000 libraries, in 47 U.S. states and countries from Canada and Britain to Serbia, South Africa and Fiji.^[1]
• At 33, Carnegie wrote a memo to himself calling the worship of money debasing and declaring that "the man who dies thus rich dies disgraced."^[1]
• Andrew Carnegie was alive at the same time as James Madison — their lives overlapped for 1 year (1835–1836).^[1][2][3][4]
• Andrew Carnegie and Robin Williams died on the same day of the year, August 11.^[1][2][5][6]

Andrew Carnegie 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.^[1]

Contemporaries

John D. Rockefeller

80 yr overlap

Claude Monet

79 yr overlap

Harriet Tubman

78 yr overlap

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

78 yr overlap

Florence Nightingale

75 yr overlap

Leo Tolstoy

75 yr overlap

Mark Twain

75 yr overlap

Sarah Bernhardt

75 yr overlap

Dmitri Mendeleev

72 yr overlap

Thomas Edison

72 yr overlap

Alexander Graham Bell

72 yr overlap

Susan B. Anthony

71 yr overlap

Their World

Questions About Andrew Carnegie

When was Andrew Carnegie born?

Andrew Carnegie was born on November 25, 1835, and died on August 11, 1919.

How old was Andrew Carnegie at death?

Andrew Carnegie was born on November 25, 1835, and died on August 11, 1919, at age 83.

What was Andrew Carnegie known for?

Andrew Carnegie was known for: Steel magnate, philanthropist. Andrew Carnegie 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.

Who was alive at the same time as Andrew Carnegie?

Andrew Carnegie's closest contemporary was John D. Rockefeller. Their lives overlapped for 80 years.