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Tuskegee Library and Carnegie
One of the most interesting things
about the library at Tuskegee is the fact that it was built almost
wholly by the labor of the colored students. Moreover, the $20,000
given Tuskegee. by Mr. Carnegie provided not only the building but
the furniture as well - and that was made entirely by students.
The brick structure is in colonial style. Four Ionic columns at
the front of the building support a well-designed pediment which
forms a porch and lends to the whole an imposing appearance.
On each side of the central portion are wings,
30 by 40 feet. In its greatest dimension, the building is 50 by I
10 feet and two stories high. In good arrangement the first floor
provides a reading room, magazine and newspaper room, librarian's
office, stack room and janitor's room. The second floor contains
an assembly room, three study rooms, a museum and a stack room.
The building is heated by steam and lighted by electricity.
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Mr. R. R. Taylor, Director of
Industries of Tuskegee Institute, and the first colored
graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
is the architect who drew the plan of the library, which
has received much praise from various parts of the
country. The library is open from 7 A. M. to 10 P. M., and
is at all times under the supervision of a competent
librarian. Free access to the shelves is allowed, and
liberal privileges are permitted to both teachers and
students in taking out books for use in their rooms. An
effort has been put forth to make Tuskegee a center of
information regarding negro literature, and to that end
living negro authors are asked to contribute their
works, and pamphlets and books of every description
written by negroes are obtained whenever possible.
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In the periodical reading room all
popular magazines are to be found, a special feature of this room
being that it contains all current matter pertaining to the negro.
"It has been my good fortune,"
said President Taft, at the dedication of the Carnegie Library of
Howard University, "to stand with Mr. Carnegie and to speak
with him from the same platform at Tuskegee, at Hampton, and here,
and to hear his accents of encouragement to the colored race and
his wise advice to them as to the necessity for education on their
part, and as to the
obligation of each individual of the race to remember that in all
his conduct he is a representative, and on trial. Mr. Carnegie was
absent a year ago when we founded this library. I was glad, on the
occasion of the laying of the cornerstone, for the moment to
officiate in his place and to feel as a great millionaire
benefactor feels.
"We do not envy Mr. Carnegie his money and the
fortune that has attended his efforts, but what we do envy him is
the happiness that it must give him to be able to do so much good
to his fellowmen as he is doing every month in the year. I am
bound to say that he has increased the burdens of the President of
the United States in the necessity that the Chief Executive feels
in attending every function of this kind which registers a large
donation from Andrew Carnegie."
Source:
Theodore Wesley Koch.
A Book of Carnegie Libraries. Publisher: The H. W. Wilson Company /
White Plains, NY / 1917
and From
'Tech' to Tuskegee: The Life of Robert Robinson Tayor, 1868-1942
by Clarence G. Williams |