Carnegie Libraries as Symbols for an Age: Montana as a Test Case

This essay examines the social and cultural reasons for the creation of Carnegie libraries in Montana, 1900-1920. Most towns had tax-supported libraries long before Carnegie money became available. They were usually small collections of books housed in a private home or a rental storeroom. Carnegie libraries, however, were a response to the economic and social dislocation brought about by the opening of Montana to settlement and to railroad expansion. They had little to do with serving as educational institutions. Rather, the towns' elites used the libraries as a mechanism to control the new settlers socially, to boost the towns' fortunes, to exude a sense of permanence, and to bond the new-founded communities socially.