Visitors packed the Carnegie Library Museum to hear the history of the founder of the structure on Thursday.

Library Clerk Susan Kelderman gave a presentation of the life of Andrew Carnegie who was born in 1835 and died in 1919. Kelderman said that Carnegie grew up poor in Scotland then later moved to the United States and became a self-made steel tycoon. She explained that Carnegie would sell his steel company for close to $200 million dollars at the age of 65 and then spend the rest of his life in philanthropy by building libraries and making donations. Kelderman was very pleased with the turn out of the program.

“Andrew Carnegie actually is a big significant influence when it comes to libraries, because he made a huge difference when it came to free libraries for the United States. And if it wasn’t for him, we would not have this beautiful building for Perry or the hundred other libraries that we have in Iowa and make a big difference in a lot of people’s lives and a lot of the reading communities that we have.”

Kelderman noted that during Carnegie’s lifetime he gave over $350 million dollars to the philanthropic work which helped build the Carnegie Library Museum in Perry in 1904