Self-made man
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A self-made man, is a person whose success is of their own making.
Frederick Douglass, photographed between 1850 and 1860.
Sketch of English novelist Charles Dickens in 1842. Juliet John backed up the claim for Dickens "to be called the first self-made global media star of the age of mass culture."
Andrew Carnegie
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Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans in history. He became a leading philanthropist in the United States, Great Britain, and the British Empire. During the last 18 years of his life, he gave away around $350 million, almost 90 percent of his fortune, to charities, foundations and universities. His 1889 article proclaiming "The Gospel of Wealth" called on the rich to use their wealth to improve society, expressed support for progressive taxation and an estate tax, and stimulated a wave of philanthropy.
Carnegie as he appears in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.
Birthplace of Andrew Carnegie in Dunfermline, Scotland
Carnegie, age 16, with younger brother Thomas, c. 1851