There will be a ‘Carnegie Lecture’ in the Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Museum on Wednesday, March 15, entitled ‘Carnegie, Education and Pittsburgh’.

The Dean of Libraries at Carnegie Mellon University, Keith Webster, will come over from Pittsburgh to deliver the lecture.

Carnegie Mellon University began life in 1910 as ‘Carnegie Technical School’, funded by Andrew Carnegie, and is now one of the top 30 universities in the world.

Dunfermline Press:

Carnegie Mellon is known for its advances in research and new fields of study, notably being home to many firsts in computer science (including the first computer science, machine learning and robotics departments) pioneering the field of management science and being home to the first drama programme in the United States.

Past and present faculty and alumni include 20 Nobel Prize laureates, 142 Emmy Award winners, 52 Tony Award laureates, and 12 Academy Award laureates and 12 Academy Award winners.

Carnegie Mellon enrols 15,8181 students across its multiple campuses from 117 countries, employs more than 1,400 faculty members, and has an active alumni base of over 112,000

Our first photograph in this week’s trip down West Fife’s Memory Lane shows another educational establishment that was also funded by Andrew Carnegie, Lauder Technical School, in Priory Lane in Dunfermline, that opened in 1899. For many years Carnegie’s uncle George Lauder had campaigned vigorously to create this college in Dunfermline that would provide technical instruction and education for the citizens.

Our next image is of a ceremony held in April 2012 to unveil a Forbes Marker, celebrating the achievements of General John Forbes who founded Pittsburgh on the November 25, 1758.

Pittencrieff House can be seen in the background and was the home of Forbes.

When Andrew Carnegie purchased the Pittencrieff estate for the people of Dunfermline he noted the connections between himself and Forbes as this extract from his autobiography explains: "Mr John Morley's address in 1904 on Founder's Day at the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, referred to the capture of Fort Duquesne by General Forbes and his writing Prime Minister Pitt that he had rechristened it 'Pittsburgh' for him. This General Forbes was then Laird of Pittencrieff and was born in the Glen which I purchased in 1902 and presented to Dunfermline for a public park. So that two Dunfermline men have been Lairds of Pittencrieff whose chief work was in Pittsburgh. One named Pittsburgh and the other laboured for its development”.

Our final image is of General John Forbes himself. Forbes was seriously ill throughout his successful campaign to take Fort Duquesne, and he died just a few months afterwards in March 1759. He was buried with full military honours in Christ Church Philadelphia.

Tickets (priced £5) for the lecture that starts at 7.30pm on March 15 are available online at Bit.ly/ACBMEvent. They can also be reserved by contacting the Birthplace Museum on 01383 724302.

More photographs like these can be seen in Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries as well as at Facebook.com/olddunfermline.

With thanks to Frank Connelly