Between 1902 and 1918, Industrialist Andrew Carnegie provided funds for the construction of 66 libraries in the State of Minnesota. Author Kevin Clemens visited and photographed the surviving 48 Carnegie Libraries in the state and has combined these photographs with original period postcards and photographs of the surviving and razed structures and with quotes from city and library officials to create an historical record of Andrew Carnegie’s legacy in Minnesota.

“There is not such a cradle of democracy upon the earth as the Free Public Library, this republic of letters, where neither rank,      office, nor wealth receives the slightest consideration.”

— Andrew Carnegie