# Popular Science Monthly/Volume 60/March 1902/Trust Deed by Andrew Carnegie, Creating a Trust for the Benefit of the Carnegie Institution, of Washington, D. C.

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* TRUST DEED BY ANDREW CARNEGIE, CREATING A TRUST FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE CARNEGIE INSTITUTION, OF WASHINGTON, D. C.
I, Andrew Carnegie, of New York, having retired from active business, and deeming it to be my duty and one of my highest privileges to administer the wealth which has come to me as a Trustee in behalf of others; and entertaining the confident belief that one of the best means of discharging that trust is by providing funds for improving and extending the opportunities for study and research in our country; and having full confidence in the gentlemen after named, who have at my request signified their willingness to carry out the trust which I have confided to them:
Therefore, I have transferred to these, the Trustees of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, ten millions of registered five per cent. bonds of the United States Steel Corporation, the names of said Trustees being as follow:
Ex officio:
The President of the United States.
The President of the Senate.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
The President of the National Academy of Sciences. :
| John S. Billings, New York. | Seth Low, New York. |
| William N. Frew, Pennsylvania. | Wayne MacVeagh, Pennsylvania. |
| Lyman J. Gage, Illinois. | D. O. Mills, New York. |
| Daniel C. Gilman, Maryland. | S. Weir Mitchell, Pennsylvania. |
| John Hay, District of Columbia. | William W. Morrow, California. |
| Abram S. Hewitt, New Jersey. | Elihu Root, New York. |
| Henry L. Higginson, Massachusetts. | John C. Spooner, Wisconsin. |
| Henry Hitchcock, Missouri. | Andrew D. White, New York. |
| Charles L. Hutchinson, Illinois. | Edward D. White, Louisiana. |
| William Lindsay, Kentucky. | Charles D. Walcott, District of Columbia. |
| Carroll D. Wright, District of Columbia. ||
The said gift is to be held in trust for the purposes hereinafter named or referred to, that is to say, for the purpose of applying the interest or annual income to be obtained from the said bonds or from any other securities which may be substituted for the same—for paying all the expenses which may be incurred in the administration of the trust by the Trustees, including in said expenses the personal expenses which the Trustees may incur in attending meetings or otherwise in carrying out the business of the trust; and, second, for paying the sums required ​by the said Trustees to enable them to carry out the purposes hereafter expressed. I hereby confer on the Trustees all the powers and immunities conferred upon Trustees under the law, and without prejudice to this generality the following powers and immunities, viz.: Power to receive and realize the said bonds, and the principal sums therein contained and the interest thereof, to grant discharges or receipts therefor, to sell the said bonds, either by public sale or private bargain, at such prices and on such terms as they may deem reasonable, to assign or transfer the same, to sue for payment of the principal sums or interest, to invest the sums which from time to time may be received from the said bonds on such securities as trustees are authorized by the law of the State of New York, Pennsylvania, or Massachusetts, to invest trust funds, and also on such other securities as they in the exercise of their own discretion may select, and to alter or vary the investments from time to time as they may think proper; and I hereby expressly provide and declare that the Trustees shall to no extent and in no way be responsible for the safety of the said bonds, or for the sums therein contained, or for the securities upon which the proceeds of the said bonds may be invested, or for any depreciation in the value of the said bonds, or securities, or for the honesty or solvency of those to whom the same may be entrusted, relying, as I do, solely on the belief that the Trustees herein appointed and their successors shall act honorably; and I further hereby empower the Trustees to administer any other funds or property which may be donated or bequeathed to them for the purposes of the trust; and I also empower them to appoint such officers as they may consider necessary for carrying on the business of the trust, at such salaries or for such remuneration as they may consider proper, and to make such arrangements, and lay down from time to time such rules as to the signature of deeds, transfers, agreements, cheques, receipts, and other writings, as may secure the safe and convenient transaction of the financial business of the trust. The Committee shall have the fullest power and discretion in dealing with the income of the trust, and expending it in such manner as they think best fitted to promote the objects set forth in the following clauses:
The purposes of the trust are as follows, and the revenues therefrom are to be devoted thereto:
It is proposed to found in the city of Washington an institution which, with the cooperation of institutions now or hereafter established, there or elsewhere, shall in the broadest and most liberal manner encourage investigation, research, and discovery; show the application of knowledge to the improvement of mankind; provide such buildings, laboratories, books, and apparatus, as may be needed; and afford instruction of an advanced character to students properly qualified to profit thereby.
​Among its aims are these—
1. To promote original research, paying great attention thereto as one of the most important of all departments.
2. To discover the exceptional man in every department of study whenever and wherever found, inside or outside of schools, and enable him to make the work for which he seems specially designed his life work.
3. To increase facilities for higher education.
4. To increase the efficiency of the universities and other institutions of learning throughout the country, by utilizing and adding to their existing facilities, and aiding teachers in the various institutions for experimental and other work, in these institutions as far as advisable.
5. To enable such students as may find Washington the best point for their special studies to enjoy the advantages of the museums, libraries, laboratories, observatory, meteorological, piscicultural, and forestry schools, and kindred institutions of the several departments of the Goverrmient.
6. To ensure the prompt publication and distribution of the results of scientific investigation, a field considered highly important.
If in any year the full income of the trust cannot be usefully expended or devoted to the purposes herein enumerated, the Committee may pay such sums as they thinlc fit into a reserve fund, to be ultimately applied to those purposes, or to the construction of such buildings as it may be found necessary to erect in Washington.
The specific objects named are considered most important in our day, but the Trustees shall have full power, by a majority of two-thirds of their number, to modify the conditions and regulations under which the funds may be dispensed, so as to secure that these shall always be applied in the manner best adapted to the changed conditions of the time; provided always that any modifications shall be in accordance with the purposes of the donor, as expressed in the trust, and that the revenues be applied to objects kindred to those named, the chief purpose of the founder being to secure if possible for the United States of America leadership in the domain of discovery and the utilization of new forces for the benefit of man.
In Witness Whereof I have subscribed these presents, consisting of what is printed or typewritten on this and the preceding seven pages, on the twenty-ninth day of January, nineteen hundred and two, before these witnesses.
* Andrew Carnegie.
* Witnesses:
* Louise Whitfield Carnegie.
* Estelle Whitfield.