Andrew Carnegie

When Andrew Carnegie dedicated his first library in the United States, on March 30, 1889, he couldn’t have foreseen all the twists that lay in its future – including closure, rebirth, and a reworking in the mid-21st century. 

A Louisiana school cafeteria worker who saw a police officer struggling with a suspect and helped the officer subdue him is one of 18 people being honored with Carnegie medals for heroism.

The Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Hero Fund Commission announced the award winners on Monday. The group grants financial awards to persons who, at the risk of his or her own life, save or attempt to save the life of another.

There are more than a few Egyptian-themed tombs sprinkled amid the sprawling expanse of Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Cemetery, but among the looming obelisks, pyramidal headstones and even its fellow mausoleums, there is one imposing white granite structure that stands out.

In 1892, the country’s largest trade union, the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, took on the world’s largest manufacturing firm, the Carnegie Steel Corporation. Carnegie’s plant manager Henry Clay Frick increased production demands, but refused to increase wages. Frick eventually locked workers out of the facility spurring a strike.

Only about a fifth of the workers at the Homestead Works Steel Mill were skilled workers represented by the union. But the nearly 3,000 workers agreed to strike for better wages and working conditions.

As an Oscar- and Tony Award-winner and one of the leading Shakespearean actors of his day, Mark Rylance knows a great story when he hears one.

He's captivated these days by the story of the historic 1892 Homestead Strike, when thousands of steel workers and townspeople clashed with Pinkerton guards hired by steel magnate Andrew Carnegie and industrialist Henry Clay Frick to end a labor dispute that turned deadly.