Born in Scotland in 1835 as the Industrial Revolution swept across Great Britain, Andrew Carnegie came to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, as a small child with his family seeking a better life and rose from working as a bobbin boy in a cotton mill to becoming a steel magnate and one of the richest men in the world. After selling his steel company to rival JP Morgan, he established the Carnegie Corporation to help those who wanted to help themselves, saying that “the man who dies rich dies disgraced.” During the rest of his life he gave away more than $350 million to create more than 2,500 libraries and support higher learning. Latta was one of thirteen South Carolina communities to receive Carnegie Corporation funds for new libraries built between 1905 and 1920. The movement to create a library in Latta began in 1911 under the leadership of local businessman WC Allen, and after the funding conditions were met, the town received $5,000 for the building while CF Bass donated the land. The Latta Public Library opened in 1914 and remains one of only five Carnegie libraries in the state still operating as a public library. The building was later expanded with a rear addition and a north wing to meet the community’s growing needs, and Dillon County completed extensive renovations in 2005 while Friends of the Latta Library continue to provide financial assistance for ongoing support.