Let There Be Light: The Carnegie Libraries in Kansas
by Allen Gardiner

Emigrant settlers from the East arriving in Kansas more than a century ago must have pined for the cultural centers they had left behind -- atheneums, museums, free public libraries -- for during the early settlement period most small towns still had a rawboned frontier atmosphere. By the later 1800s towns of any size had established literary societies, built opera houses, and welcomed traveling chautauqua groups. But public libraries usually had a low priority in the establishment of places of learning and cultural refinement, especially in the Midwest.

However, one man in this country decided to help remedy the problem of so few public libraries. He was Andrew Carnegie. Born November 25, 1835, in Dunfermline, Scotland, Carnegie was ten years old when the family emigrated to America after his father, a handloom weaver, had been squeezed out of work by the factory system.

Carnegie immediately found work as a bobbin boy in an Allegheny, Pennsylvania, cotton factory. He learned quickly and was determined to succeed. When an employer made his personal library of four hundred volumes available to Carnegie and other boys, it was like opening a door into a new world.

Carnegie, who in the 1870s and 1880s amassed a fortune in the steel industry, is often called the "patron saint of libraries," and with good reason. Between 1886 and 1919 he gave the money to erect free public libraries in 2,509 communities in various parts of the English-speaking world. Carnegie's philanthropy was immense, and libraries were only one of his benevolences. In all, through various funds, he gave away $350 million -- $62 million throughout the British Empire and $288 million in the United States.

Of the 1,679 Carnegie public libraries built in the United States, Kansas had 59 erected in 58 communities in 46 counties at a total cost to Carnegie of $874,996. By far, the greater number of these (twenty-eight) were built in south-central and southeast Kansas, while only three were built in the western third of the state (Goodland, Garden City, and Dodge City). In addition to the fifty-nine public libraries, Carnegie libraries were constructed at four Kansas colleges and universities.

The importance of the libraries to these towns cannot be overemphasized. According to Martha Hagedorn-Krass, architectural historian at the Kansas State Historical Society, "For many Kansas communities, the Carnegie Library represented its first library building, providing an environment that all members of the community could share for the purposes of reading, learning, and education." Enlightenment, Carnegie believed, was the remedy for the ills of individuals and communities throughout the world. Thus, in the early years, Carnegie requested that his motto, "Let There Be Light," be placed in all library buildings.

How easy was it to get a Carnegie building? Quite easy! James Bertram, Carnegie's right-hand man who oversaw the library giving program, had this onus upon him: "No worthy applicant to be rejected, and yet, no unworthy one was to be accepted." To receive a grant, the requirements were simple: Carnegie would provide the building funds to any city of the second class if the requesting city would provide a building site and pledge to support the library on an annual basis with a budget at least one-tenth the size of the building grant.

By and large, most communities were grateful for the library grant. In delivering the dedicatory address for the Carnegie library in Oswego, Judge Nelson Case stated: "A whole generation is a good while to wait for something which you feel you must have today, but we have kept up our hope and now rejoice in the reality of that which through the past years has been but a dream." Likewise in Hiawatha, at the laying of the cornerstone of the ten-thousand-dollar Carnegie building, heartfelt sentiment expressed that it was "due to the magnificence of Mr. Carnegie. . . . He has no personal interest in us. He has never visited us and never expects to. He has no acquaintance here to interest him in our behalf. He gave it from the purest of motives."

Others saw Carnegie's philanthropy differently. Many people, then as now, considered Carnegie a robber baron who had made his money off cheap labor, and the memory was still strong of the 1892 Homestead strike, in which Carnegie's hired Pinkerton guards fired on the striking miners in Homestead, Pennsylvania. Others considered it vulgar for Carnegie to immortalize himself by building libraries with his name on them all across the land.

The "robber baron" feeling was so prevalent in Kansas ninety years ago that almost as many people opposed receiving Carnegie libraries as were in favor of the grants. In Frankfort and Atchison the offer had to be refused because those cities simply could not or would not provide the amount of the annual budget. Atchison turned down a twenty-five-thousand-dollar offer in 1901, believing the money to be "tainted." The same sentiment was uttered in Goodland by one E. F Mercer, who spoke out bitterly against the building: "Carnegie's money was tainted [and he was] the foe of the working man."

Even harsher words were used in Pittsburg -- coal country -- where both miners and the Pittsburg Kansan editor were violently opposed to accepting a gift from Carnegie. After the building opened, the editor wrote: "[The money] was gathered in the blood and tears of the Homestead strike, where children starved, women wept and workmen were shot to death on the doorsteps of the shacks they had been driven from by Pinkerton's hired butchers. The editor of the KANSAN is not in favor today, nor any other day, of holding out clamorous hands for any of this tear-rusted blood-stained gold for library buildings."

The construction of Carnegie libraries in Kansas spanned nearly twenty years, the first being completed in Leavenworth in 1902 and the last in Canton in 1921. The Carnegie libraries in Kansas were built to be not only functional but also aesthetically appealing, created during the period of cultural and artistic rebirth known as the American Renaissance. Although the libraries in Kansas employ different styles of architecture, Neoclassical is the predominant design. Other styles found among the libraries include Jacobethan, Utilitarian, Beaux Arts, and Prairie.

Because over the years populations of towns have grown and library collections have expanded, many Carnegie buildings eventually could not accommodate a public library's needs. Of the fifty-nine public library buildings in Kansas, twenty-two are now used for purposes other than libraries, and twelve have been demolished. Forty Carnegie library buildings in Kansas are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Throughout Kansas and elsewhere in the world, the public library provides a sense of continuity, of culture, and a spirit of community. The Carnegie library buildings that still stand across our state remain an enduring legacy, not only to Andrew Carnegie, but to our citizens and their efforts to bring "light" into the world of thousands of Kansans.

Reproduced with permission of the Kansas State Historical Society from
Kansas Heritage, Vol. 5, no. 1 (Spring 1997). pp. 9-12

Carnegie Libraries in Kansas

The following is a list of all Carnegie libraries (public and university) built in Kansas. The DATE category indicates the year the building was completed. In the STATUS category, the following abbreviations apply:
L = building still used as library
O = building used for purpose other than library
D = building demolished
NR = building listed on National Register of Historic Places.

Reproduced with permission of the Kansas State Historical Society from
Kansas Heritage, Vol. 5, no. 1 (Spring 1997). p. 13

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