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"Forty-millionaire Carnegie in His Great Double Role."

In 1892, this unidentified cartoonist, along with many Americans, sharply criticized the steel baron for his role in the Homestead strike. Andrew Carnegie’s “Great Double Role” refers to his accumulation of an immense personal fortune at the same time as he endowed cultural institutions around the world. “[A]s the tight-fisted employer,” ran the caption, “he reduced wages that he may play philanthropist and give away libraries, etc.”

Source: Saturday Globe (Utica, New York), July 9, 1892—Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Who Built America? An Open Educational Resource has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and funding from The Ford Foundation, Digital Scholar, and the City University of New York Central Office of Library Services. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this Open Educational Resource, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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