The following list of Carnegie libraries in Florida provides detailed information on

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Carnegie libraries in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, where 10 public libraries were built from 10 grants (totaling $198,000) awarded by the

Carnegie Corporation of New York The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world. Carnegie Corporation has endowed or otherwise helped to establis ...

from 1901 to 1917. In addition, academic libraries were built at 4 institutions (totaling $76,500).

Key

Carnegie libraries

Academic libraries

Carnegie Hall Library at Rollins College

One of the

libraries funded by

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...

was on the campus of

Rollins College Rollins College is a private college in Winter Park, Florida. It was founded in November 1885 and has about 30 undergraduate majors and several graduate programs. It is Florida's fourth oldest post-secondary institution. History Rollins Colle ...

in Winter Park. According to Cohen (2006), Carnegie's "donation of 108 libraries to colleges in the first two decades of the twentieth century assisted 10 percent of the institutions of higher learning in the

. Carnegie had a preference for colleges and universities that served African-American students, which Rollins College president William Fremont Blackman noted the school did in a letter to Carnegie appealing for a library in 1904:

The fact that it is the only college in the country, North or South, in which the grandchildren of abolitionists and confederate soldiers, in about equal numbers, sit together in the same class-room and play together on the same athletic field, and learn thus to understand, respect and love one another;

Blackman's request consisted of $35,000 in total: "$20,000 for a fireproof building, $3,000 for books, and $12,000 as an endowment for the continued purchase of books" (Cohen). Blackman received a response from Carnegie's secretary James Bertram that noted the request was too general for consideration, and that Carnegie would need a profile of the university before consideration. Little progress was made for over a year, when Blackman again wrote to Carnegie, noting the university's need for a library. Trustees and friends of the university wrote to Carnegie on Blackman's behalf, including W.W. Cummer, a trustee from

Jacksonville Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

who served on the board of the city's new Carnegie Library. A letter dated 22 June 1905 and written from Carnegie's home in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

brought the welcome news of the offer of a library. Carnegie offered $20,000 for the construction of a library provided that the same amount would be raised for the library's upkeep. While grateful for Carnegie's proposal, Blackman was uneasy with its terms because the amount of funding required to match Carnegie's offer would put a strain on those who had donated to start the college's endowment fund ($200,000) as well as paid a debt ($30,000). In correspondence to Bertram dated July 11, 1905 Blackman wrote (according to Cohen):

Our college is in the poorest of States, remote from all centers of wealth and population, and our friends have strained themselves to the uttermost, in the effort to raise $230,000 in two years. I am by no means sure that we can meet Mr. Carnegie's conditions.

In a January 1906 letter Blackman wrote to Carnegie expressing concern about meeting the conditions for the gift, noting that the college had a large debt that took "considerable self-sacrifice on the part of our friends." That summer, another Florida college,

Stetson University Stetson University is a private university with four colleges and schools located across the I–4 corridor in Central Florida with the primary undergraduate campus in DeLand. The university was founded in 1883 and was later established in 1887 ...

, was awarded $40,000 for a library from Carnegie. Upon learning this Blackman again wrote to Carnegie, seeking to amend the original terms of the agreement to match the amount that Stetson was awarded. He was turned down, but a year later was able to notify Carnegie that the school's trustees had been able to match the $20,000 necessary for the gift to be awarded. Bertram wrote to Blackman to inform him that Carnegie had "authorized his Cashier ... to arrange payments on Library Building, as work progresses, to the extent of Twenty Thousand Dollars." The library, to be named Carnegie Hall, was dedicated on February 18, 1909. The building had over 8,000 square feet of space, and was the school's first dedicated library building. It served as so from 1909 until 1951. In addition to its function as a library, Carnegie Hall also served as the school's post office. Since the library was moved from Carnegie to the newly built Mills Memorial Library, it has also housed a bookstore, admissions office, faculty offices, and human resources.

Carnegie Library at Stetson University

Sampson Hall,

's Carnegie library was opened in 1908. The Carnegie donation was matched with funds donated by

John B. Stetson John Batterson Stetson (May 5, 1830 – February 18, 1906) was an American hatter, hat manufacturer, and in the 1860s, the inventor of the cowboy hat. He founded the John B. Stetson Company as a manufacturer of headwear. The company's hats a ...

's wife, Elizabeth S. Stetson, and the library later was named Sampson Library in honor of C.T. Sampson, one of the university's foremost trustees. Of the academic libraries that Carnegie helped to fund, Stetson's Sampson library received funds greatly exceeding those received by others in the state. The funding was given on March 12, 1906. Two years later, the resulting Sampson Library was a gorgeous structure which housed the university's library for fifty-six years before a lack of space led to changes. The structure was designed by

Henry John Klutho Henry John Klutho (1873–1964) was an American architect known for his work in the "Prairie School" style. He helped in the reconstruction of Jacksonville, Florida after the Great Fire of 1901—the largest-ever urban fire in the Southeast—by ...

, the first Floridian Architect to be inducted to the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...

, and reflects the neoclassical style many Carnegie libraries adopted. The library's edifice is emblazoned with "Education is Power" in Roman style lettering and all around the building are the names of persons influential to academia, such as

Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...

, and

Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include "Paul Revere's Ride", ''The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely transl ...

. When Sampson Library was relocated to the DuPont-Ball Library in 1964, the entire university- students, faculty, and staff- helped to move the books by hand from one building to the other. Students we asked to give an hour of their time to move the resources, but many worked even longer helping to move the materials whose numbers exceed 100,000. Sampson Hall is still used by Stetson University and is a prominent structure along the palm court at the heart of the university. Today its space is divided into classrooms and faculty offices used by the Art, modern language, and American Studies departments; and also is home to student art studio spaces. It'd place as the library's former home and a building of great architectural importance on campus is still prominent.

Notes

References

* * * * ''Note: The above references, while all authoritative, are not entirely mutually consistent. Some details of this list may have been drawn from one of the references (usually Jones) without support from the others. Reader discretion is advised.'' {{Carnegie libraries (US)

Libraries A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...