The Carnegie Legacy
The Carnegie Rughookers’ History
Founded in September 2004, they took the name of their meeting place, the historic Carnegie Building, 20 Peel Plaza. Originally, the Saint John Free Public Library, it is now home of the Saint John Arts Centre. We meet every Friday morning, September to May, to share ideas and inspiration and to work on our rughooking projects in a social atmosphere. Group members range in level of experience and hooking style, but all are welcome. We all began as novices!
The Carnegie Rughookers have exhibited at the Saint John Arts Centre, Saint John City Market, Imperial Theatre, Sunbury Shores in St Andrews, and the Hooked Rug Museum of North America in Hubbards, Nova Scotia.
Andrew Carnegie, 1835 – 1919
Andrew Carnegie (pronounced “car NE gie”) was a Scottish-American industrialist, business magnate, and philanthropist. Born in Dunfermline, Scotland, he immigrated to the United States with his parents in 1848, at age 12.
Carnegie started work as a telegrapher and by the 1860s had investments in railroads, railroad sleeping cars, bridges, and oil derricks. He accumulated further wealth as a bond salesman, raising money for American enterprise in Europe. Carnegie recognized the nation’s growing need for steel. Using shrewd business tactics, he built the Carnegie Steel Company, which he sold to J. P. Morgan in 1901 for $303,450,000, making him one of the richest Americans in history.
Carnegie devoted the remainder of his life to large-scale philanthropy, with special emphasis on local libraries (he funded the construction of over 2800 lending libraries worldwide), world peace, education, and scientific research. During the last 18 years of his life, he gave away $350 million (conservatively $65 billion in 2019 dollars) to charities, foundations, and universities – almost 90 percent of his fortune. This hooked rug exhibit explores Carnegie’s legacy, 100 years after his death.