Photograph Album -
The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
and Carnegie Institute

Chronology: Andrew Carnegie's Institutions in Pittsburgh --

The following are photographs of The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and The Carnegie Institute(known better to the public as The Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh), located together in a massive building at 4400 Forbes Avenue in the Oakland Civic Center District of Pittsburgh(approximately three miles east of Downtown Pittsburgh); this building is located across Forbes Avenue from the University of Pittsburgh's 42-story Cathedral of Learning, the tallest academic building in the Western Hemisphere. In addition to the Main Branch of The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, The Carnegie Institute building includes The Carnegie Museum of Natural History, The Carnegie Museum of Art(including the Scaife Gallery building addition, constructed in the 1960s), The Carnegie Music Hall and The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Lecture Hall. The Carnegie Institute also operates two other museums, located on Pittsburgh's Lower North Side: The Carnegie Science Center and The Andy Warhol Museum. Also see Andrew Carnegie Philanthropy

The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

Dedicated by Andrew Carnegie and opened to the public on November 5, 1895, The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and The Carnegie Institute was Andrew Carnegie's largest philanthropic endeavor, up to that time.
Photographs 1 through 6 show various views of the Library entrance, which faces Schenley Plaza. Notice that the lettering, engraved at the Library entrance, for "FREE TO THE PEOPLE" is actually larger than the lettering for "CARNEGIE LIBRARY." Photograph 7 shows the outside entrance to The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's Lecture Hall, which faces Schenley Drive. Photograph 8, in black-and-white, shows The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Institute building at its dedication in November of 1895, prior to construction of the 1907 addition(from "Presentation of the Carnegie Library to the People of Pittsburgh with a Description of the Dedicatory Exercises, November 5th, 1895" "Printed by Order of the Corporation of the City of Pittsburgh").

Photo 1 (1)***Photo 2 (1)***Photo 3 (1)***Photo 4 (1)***Photo 5 (1)***Photo 6 (1)***Photo 7 (1)

Photo 8

Sebak, Rick. "The Carnegie Library, The children’s department at Carnegie Library’s main branch has always been a wonderous place." Column.
Pittsburgh Magazine 2011 February.

Entrances to The Carnegie Institute and to The Carnegie Music Hall are on Forbes Avenue. Photograph 1 shows The Carnegie Institute building with Forbes Avenue in the foreground; the main entrance to The Carnegie Museum of Natural History and The Carnegie Museum of Art is on the extreme left, the carriage entrance and driveway is in the middle, and the entrance to The Carnegie Music Hall is on the right. Photograph 2 shows the main Museum entrance. Photograph 3 shows the carriage entrance and driveway. Photograph 4 shows the Music Hall entrance.

Photo 1 (1)***Photo 2 (1)***Photo 3 (1)***Photo 4 (1)

* 2007 Sept. 20 - Pittsburgh City Paper:
Old is the new new at the Carnegie's Hall of Architecture turns 100.
BY CHARLES ROSENBLUM

* 2006 June 14 - Pittsburgh City Paper:
You Had to Ask

I’ve found old pictures (see below) in which the Carnegie Institute has two towers. When and why were they removed? Why were they there in the first place? Question submitted by: Sheel Mohnot, Squirrel Hill
Writer: CHRIS POTTER

Also see Andrew Carnegie Philanthropy

In creating one building for The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and The Carnegie Institute, Andrew Carnegie envisioned this building as a place to bring together the disciplines of Literature, Science, Art, and Music, what he called "The Noble Quartet." He had four statues created, and placed at the Forbes Avenue entrances(two at the Museums entrance and two at the Music Hall entrance), to symbolize "The Noble Quartet." At the main Museums entrance are statues of Galileo Galiei(Science) and Michelangelo(Art). At the Music Hall entrance are statues of Johann Sebastian Bach(Music) and William Shakespeare(Literature).

Gaileo (Science) (1)***Michelangelo (Art) (1)***Bach (Music) (1)***Shakespeare (Literature) (1)

From the Pittsburgh City Paper, Pittsburgh - 2005 June 2:
Weekly Column - "You Had to Ask !"
How were those four statues outside the Carnegie museum chosen?
Question submitted by: Frank Wadsworth, Upper St. Clair
Writer: CHRIS POTTER

When dinosaur bones were discovered in the western United States, Andrew Carnegie funded field research to find complete dinosaur skeletons. Several complete skeletons were put on display at The Carnegie Museum of Natural History. The Pittsburgh museum now has one of the best dinosaur skeleton collections in the world.

Photograph 1 shows Dinosaur Hall in The Carnegie Museum of Natural History. In the rear is the skeleton of mighty Tryrannosaurus Rex; this skeleton served as a "Type Specimen" for the original description of "T-Rex" in 1906. On the left is a skeleton named in honor of Andrew Carnegie, "Diplodocus Carnegii"; the skeleton on the right was named in honor of Andrew Carnegie's wife, Louise. Photograph 2 shows a closer view of "T-Rex." Photograph 3 shows a closer view of Apatosaurus Louisae, named in honor of Louise Carnegie.

Photo 1 (1)***Photo 2 (1)***Photo 3 (1)

Diplodocus Carnegii - "Dippy"

The famous dinosaur skeleton, Diplodocus Carnegii, affectionately known as "Dippy" to generations of Pittsburghers, celebrated an anniversary in 1999. The Carnegie Museum of Natural History's first major dinosaur skeleton was discovered in Wyoming on July 4, 1899. As a permanent commemoration of this centennial, a life-size replica of Diplodocus Carnegii(as scientists believe he looked when alive) was built at the corner of Forbes Avenue and Schenley Drive, near the Museum's entrance. Photographs 1 and 2 show this new Oakland landmark. Photograph 3 shows a smaller model of Diplodocus Carnegii in a centennial exhibit inside the Museum; in the background is the New York City newspaper article, which prompted Andrew Carnegie to fund the first paleontological expedition which resulted in the discovery of "Dippy." Photograph 4 is a photograph of the actual dinosaur skelton, in the Museum's Dinosaur Hall(specifically constructed to house dinosaur skeletons).

Photo 1 (2)***Photo 2 (2)***Photo 3 (2) ***Photo 4 (1)

Also see Andrew Carnegie Philanthropy

Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems

One of the newer exhibit halls, in The Carnegie Museum of Natural History, is the Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems. The following are photographs of some of the hundreds of specimens included in this Hall's permanent collection. The collection includes a fairly large iron meteorite(photograph 1) from outer space, as well as several small meteorite fragments(photograph 2). One exhibit(photograph 3) uses a Geiger Counter to show the amount of radioactivity eminating from certain rocks. (Photographs by Sean W. Comunale)

Photo 1 (2)***Photo 2 (2)***Photo 3 (2)***Photo 4 (2)***Photo 5 (2)***Photo 6 (2)***Photo 7 (2)

Photo 8 (2)***Photo 9 (2)***Photo 10 (2)***Photo 11 (2)***Photo 12 (2)***Photo 13 (2)

Until very recently, Pittsburgh was known around the country as "The Smoky City." Smoke control efforts of the 1950s, a ban on outdoor burning in Allegheny County in the 1960s, and the recent Clean Air Act Federal legislation have made this Pittsburgh moniker obsolete. However, after nearly a century of co-existence with smoke from the steel mills and other industrial plants, a layer of soot lay on the facade of many older Pittsburgh-area buildings, including the historic facade of of The Carnegie Institute. Over the years, several of these buildings were cleaned the soot from their facade, including the Union National Bank Building (early 1980s), now The Carlyle condominiums, and Trinity Cathedral (2007), both Downtown, as well as the original Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science (1982) in Allegheny Center on the Lower North Side, Cathedral of Learning (2007) in Oakland, and the Carnegie Free Library of McKeesport (for the Library's centennial in 2002).

In the late 1980s, it was finally decided to clean this layer of soot from another Oakland historic landmark, Carnegie Institute. Former Carnegie Instutute President Robert Wilburn once mentioned that a lighter-color stone was chosen for the 1960s-era Scaife Gallery addition to The Carnegie Museum of Art, because they knew that "some day" the rest of the building would be cleaned! However, to demonstrate one of the consequences of air pollution to future generations, the layer of soot was kept on one small section of the building. The small corner of the building faces the Library entrance and Schenley Plaza; The Carnegie Music Hall is on the other side of this wall. These two photographs show the section of Carnegie Institute wall where soot remains; remember, at one time the entire building looked like this !

Photo 1 (1)***Photo 2 (1)

In 2007, E. Maxine Bruhns, long-time Director of the Nationality Rooms inside the University of Pittsburgh's 42-floor Cathedral of Learning, suggested doing the same thing when the University decided to clean 70 years worth of industrial soot from the landmark Cathedral of Learning, second tallest educational building in the world (located across Forbes Avenue from Carnegie Institute). She said, "Somebody has to honor those people who made the city. These grimy stones were a perfect tribute."

The University agreed to this rather unique memorial and plans were made to set-aside stones near the building's main entrance on Fifth Avenue for the tribute. However, after being protected from cleaning for most of the project, near the end of the project the unprotected stones were inadvertently cleaned by workers who had no knowledge of the plans to keep these stones uncleaned. Clck here to read the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article about this unfortunaate incident.

Vassilaros, Dimitri. "Honoring Fred & history, too."
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 2008 July 18.

Conte, Andrew. "Cathedral of Learning bricks mistakenly cleaned."
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 2007 Aug. 30.

McCune, Sara. "Landmark Downtown cathedral gets its first cleaning."
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 2007 June 25.