Andrew Carnegie and his grants

Mr. Carnegie started poor and worked through learning and hard work to become a multimillionaire.  Yet he never forgot where he came from and gave back to those who could use a little help.  That help came in the form of grant money to build libraries or better libraries so everyone could have a chance to read and better themselves.  In his years of wealth he provided money to a few thousand libraries in several different countries and most of the time all one needed to do was ask.  Yes, there were a few simple criteria but overall, the grant money was there for the taking.

 It was this grant money that the people of New Orleans were blessed with in the early 1900s while the board was trying to decide what to do about possibly losing the St. Patrick’s Building.  Having a grant that large allowed for expansion in several ways, with a new main library and several branch libraries.  Branch libraries were important in a growing city because they allowed more people access to the books, magazines and newspapers that were available through the library.  True, things were not as fast then as now but reading a newspaper that was a day old or so was not terrible.