Date:
1904
Title:
Andrew Carnegie Portrait
Description:
Andrew Carnegie and the Allen County Public Library
Fort Wayne's first public library opened in 1895 in a room in the City Hall building (now the History Center's home) with 3,600 volumes. In 1898 the library moved into a new location on the corner of Wayne and Webster streets at the Breckinridge home. A grant from the Andrew Carnegie Foundation provided the funds for a new permanent building on the same spot. The Carnegie building opened in January 1904 and remained the library's home until 1968 when it was demolished.
The present building was constructed on the same site, with additions and renovations in 1981 and 2007. Allen County Public Library possesses one of the largest genealogical collections in the United States and was the first public library to obtain all the available Federal census records. When Fred Reynolds became the library director in 1960, he was committed to expanding the genealogy collection and set aside a room specifically for it in the old Carnegie building. This portrait of Andrew Carnegie was commissioned by the Carnegie Foundation to hang in the new "Greco-Roman" library when it was opened and dedicated on 7 January 1904. Such portraits were commissioned for every library the foun-dation built.
Fort Wayne's first public library opened in 1895 in a room in the City Hall building (now the History Center's home) with 3,600 volumes. In 1898 the library moved into a new location on the corner of Wayne and Webster streets at the Breckinridge home. A grant from the Andrew Carnegie Foundation provided the funds for a new permanent building on the same spot. The Carnegie building opened in January 1904 and remained the library's home until 1968 when it was demolished.
The present building was constructed on the same site, with additions and renovations in 1981 and 2007. Allen County Public Library possesses one of the largest genealogical collections in the United States and was the first public library to obtain all the available Federal census records. When Fred Reynolds became the library director in 1960, he was committed to expanding the genealogy collection and set aside a room specifically for it in the old Carnegie building. This portrait of Andrew Carnegie was commissioned by the Carnegie Foundation to hang in the new "Greco-Roman" library when it was opened and dedicated on 7 January 1904. Such portraits were commissioned for every library the foun-dation built.
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Andrew Carnegie
Public Library Postcard
Andrew Carnegie
Public Library Postcard