North Side: The Reading Blacksmith

CAPTION: Col. James Anderson Memorial, also known as
Labor or The Reading Blacksmith.
NOTES: The monument was a gift of Andrew Carnegie 
to the people of Allegheny in memory of Col. James Anderson 
who, according to the inscription, is honored as "founder of free 
libraries in western Pennsylvania."
Anderson "opened his library to working boys and on Saturday afternoons
acted as librarian, thus dedicating not only his books, but himself, to
the noble work."
Mr. Carnegie notes on the bronze plaque of the memorial that he was
himself "one of the 'working boys' to whom were thus opened the 
precious treasures of knowledge and imagination through which youth may
ascend."
Another photograph of The Reading Blacksmith locates it 
across from the Market House.
A view of the statue in sepia offers somewhat sharper detail. 
PHOTOGRAPHER: 
DATE: 
HEADING: Pittsburgh. Monuments. Reading Blacksmith. 
#: P1143.
From the Collections of the Pennsylvania Department,
The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

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