he cover article in the October 1998 issue of American Heritage, “The American Heritage 40” by Michael Klepper and Robert Gunther, ranked the 40 richest Americans of all time based on a formula in which fortunes were projected into the present as a percentage of gross national product. John D. Rockefeller came in first and Andrew Carnegie ranked number two. Bill Gates was number six (at the time).

When Andrew Carnegie, the Scottish-born industrialist and philanthropist, moved with his wife, Louise, and young daughter Margaret to 2 East 91st Street in December 1902, he also established within the mansion the headquarters for his new philanthropy.

After decades as a successful, albeit controversial, businessman and with the sale of his solidly efficient steel works to J.P. Morgan in 1901, Carnegie was recognized as the richest man in the world. He would devote the last 17 years of his life exclusively to managing his philanthropic activities and striving for world peace. These later-life efforts would become his enduring gifts to mankind.

Today Carnegie’s best known contributions are the 2,500 libraries he founded throughout the United States (including our library on East 96th Street) and another 250 more abroad. At the same time, he established widely read guidelines for philanthropic giving and created a lasting foundation, the Carnegie Corporation, to which he transferred the balance of the fortune that he was not able to disburse during his lifetime. He thus left a workable template for large-scale philanthropy that would be followed by many other people of vast wealth.

Carnegie also labored strenuously to avoid war. He corresponded with and made personal visits to Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany and presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, and Woodrow Wilson to press his case for peace. He built the Peace Palace in The Hague (between 1907 and 1913), which continues to serve as the seat of the World Court, and donated the then astounding sum of $10 million to fund the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, headquartered in Washington.