GUTZON BORGLUM Sculptor, Mount Rushmore 1867 - 1941 Enter your search terms Submit search form   Web gardenofpraise.com

John Gutzon Borglum (jon GUT suhn BORG luhm) was born March 25,1867 into a Mormon* family which practiced polygamy* . His father had two wives, but when he decided to not be a Mormon anymore he discarded Gutzon's mother, and the boy was raised, along with eight other children in the family, by his step-mother. He had an unhappy childhood and tried to run away numerous times.

He moved to California and studied art, then he went to study in London and Paris. He chose sculpture as the medium for expressing himself. Returning to America in 1901, he completed many important projects in the next ten years. He decided Americans would be receptive to large massive works and started looking for a project site.

His first attempt was at Stone Mountain in Georgia. He attempted to carve a large mural in the side of the mountain to commemorate* the Confederacy* , but he only partially completed it.

Leaders from South Dakota were looking for a tourist attraction to bring revenue to the state and contacted Borglum about carving some faces on Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of their state. They suggested regional heroes, but Borglum told them it would be better to use national heroes, so they settled on presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.

Mount Rushmore Larger view

He told his 12-year-old son, Lincoln, "Nothing but the Almighty can stop me from completing this task."

Borglum made a model of the figures before he started. One inch on the model represented one foot on the finished sculpture; a 1-to-12-inch scale. You will notice that more of the body and arms are shown in the original model. You can still see this model today when you visit the Sculptor's Studio at Mount Rushmore.

Model for Mount Rushmore Larger view

Senator Peter Norbeck became his ally* and helped him raise money for the project. Norbeck invited the president, Calvin Coolidge, to visit the site and convinced him to arrange for the government to pay part of the cost. Borglum hired local men to do the work and trained them.

In about a year the face of Washington was finished and dedicated, then came the Depression* . Times were hard and money was scarce. It seemed this project too was doomed to incompletion.

Mary, his wife, was a source of constant encouragement to him. She cared for their two children and helped to manage the money to get them through the difficult times.

After a year and a half work resumed on the mountain. Borglum turned over much of the supervision to his son Lincoln, then 21 years old.

In 1936 the face of Jefferson was unveiled with President Franklin D. Roosevelt in attendance. He spoke of the "permanent importance" of the monument.

"I am allowing an extra three inches on all the features of the various Presidents in order to provide stone for the wear and tear of the elements, which cuts the granite down one inch every hundred thousand years. Three inches would require three-hundred thousand years to bring the work down to the point that I would like to finish it. In other words, the work will not be done for another three hundred thousand years, as it should be." Gutzon Borglum /

Through the years the faces continued to emerge. When Borglum died unexpectedly on March 6, 1941 at the age of 73, most of the work had been finished. It would be up to his son, Lincoln to do the cleaning up and the finishing of the collars and shoulders of the figures.

The carving of Mount Rushmore had taken fourteen years and had cost $989,992.32, slightly less than $1 million.

The Aviator Photo by Einar Einarsson Kvaran Larger view

Borglum's fame was somewhat overshadowed by the creation of the Mount Rushmore monument . People remember him for that work, but other famous works by Borglum include: The Aviator, shown on the left, Mares of Diomedes, the statue of John Campbell Greenway located in the Capitol, the Abraham Lincoln bust in Washington D.C., General Sheridan in Washington D.C., Collis B. Huntington statue in West Virginia, seated Lincoln and Wars of America in Newark, New Jersey, Indian and Puritan in Newark, John Ruskin, the John Mackay statue in Reno, Nevada, and Wounded Confederate Soldier in North Carolina. Borglum also made the remodeled torch for the Statue of Liberty and created the statues of the twelve Apostles for the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York City.

He is credited with making sixty gargoyles * for the buildings at Princeton University. The university has printed a book about them. Click on the word "Gargoyles" to look at the PDF version and see the drawings of them.

Gutzon Borglum is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. His wife Mary lived until 1955, and she was also buried alongside him there.

"There may be some confusion over his burial site because apparently there was a government resolution that became law that stated Borglum was authorized to be buried at Mount Rushmore. The family did not know if he really wanted to be buried there and they were not sure if provisions were made for his wife to be buried with him at Mount Rushmore so they accepted a request that he be buried in California. He had also left notes regarding his love for the state."

Source: Cindy S. Drake, Library Curator, Statewide Cemetery Registry Coordinator, Nebraska State Historical Society

The American Experience: Gutzon Borglum Transcript of the film Mount Rushmore (Students may want to increase the text size.) Gutzon Borglum at Wikipedia Penny Postcards Mount Rushmore The Artistic Development of Gutzon Borglum Stamford Museum and Nature Center Gutzon Borglum information at answers.com Construction of Mount Rushmore Video Gutzon Borglum Timeline Our Georgia History Mount Rushmore National Memorial National Park Service Gutzon Borglum brief biography Gutzon Borglum Idaho State Historical Society Mount Rushmore Great White Fathers book preview at Google books

Historic Monuments: Mount Rushmore By Julia Hargrove / Teaching & Learning Co. The largest figures of any statue in the world are located in the tribute to four great American Presidents known as Mount Rushmore National Memorial. The head of Washington is about 60-feet (18 m) high - to the scale of a person 465 feet (142 m) tall! From Doane Robinson's dream of a South Dakota monument to Western heroes to Gutzon Borglum's eternal tribute to a nation dedicated to democracy, the story of Mount Rushmore is a fascinating study in history, politics, personalities and perseverance. Through original source materials, excerpts from contemporary documents, time lines and activities, students' investigations will relate past history to present day and reinforce key terms and concepts, produce context and develop understanding and appreciation. Multiple intelligence activities, internet research ideas and an answer key complete this vital resource. Grades 4-8.

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From Word Central's Student Dictionary
by Merriam - Webster

Mormon
MOR mun
Function: noun
a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
founded by Joseph Smith in 1830 and accepting the Book of Mormon

polygamy
puh LIG uh me
Function: noun
relating to marriage in which a spouse has more than one mate at one time

commemorate
kuh MEM uh rate
Function: verb
to call to remembrance or to be a memorial of

Confederacy
kuhn FED (uh) ruh see
Function: noun
the Confederate States of America made up of the
11 southern states that seceded from the U.S. in 1860 and 1861

ally
AL i
Function: noun
one associated or united with another for some common purpose

Depression
dih PRESH un
Function: noun
a time in American history when there was
low general economic activity and widespread unemployment

gargoyle
GAR goil
Function: noun
a waterspout in the form of a strange or frightening human
or animal figure sticking out at the roof or eaves of a building

Biographies in this Series

Presidents of the United States	George Washington 1st U.S. President	John Adams 2nd U.S. President	Thomas Jefferson 3rd U.S.President
	James Monroe 5th U.S. President	Andrew Jackson 7th U.S. President	Abraham Lincoln 16th U.S.President
	Franklin D. Roosevelt 32nd U.S. President	John F. Kennedy 35th U.S. President	James Madison 4th U.S. President
	Theodore Roosevelt 26th U.S. President
American Patriots	Benjamin Franklin patriot and statesman	Francis Scott Key Star Spangled Banner	Deborah Sampson woman soldier in the Revolutionary War
World Leaders	Constantine Roman Emperor	Alexander the Great conqueror	Winston Churchill British Prime Minister
Inventors	Alexander Graham Bell telephone	Johann Gutenberg printing press	Cyrus McCormick mechanical reaper
	The Wright Brothers first airplane	Henry Ford Automaker	Thomas A. Edison electric light bulb
	Sequoyah Cherokee alphabet	Nikola Tesla 700 patents	.
Explorers	Christopher Columbus explorer	Meriwether Lewis explorer	Robert Peary Arctic explorer
	John Muir Naturalist	Matthew Henson Arctic Explorer	Sir Edmund Hillary Mr.Everest
	Kit Carson Indian agent	"Johnny Appleseed" orchardist	.
Women who made a difference	Clara Barton founder of the Red Cross	Helen Keller overcame blindness & deafness	Florence Nightingale founder of nursing profession
	Joan of Arc religious and military leader	Amelia Earhart Aviator	Annie Oakley sharpshooter
	Susan B. Anthony Suffragette	Elizabeth Keckly Seamstress	Harriet Tubman deliverer of slaves
	Anne Frank Diarist	Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian	.
Scientists	George Washington Carver botanist and educator	Sir Isaac Newton explained gravity and properties of light	Marie Curie scientist, physicist
	Louis Pasteur Biologist	Albert Einstein physicist, genius	Galileo Astronomer, physicist
Educators	Noah Webster writer of dictionary	Booker T. Washington leader and educator	Aristotle Greek philosopher
Physicians	Hippocrates father of medicine	Walter Reed discovered cause of yellow fever	Albert Schweitzer humanitarian
Religious Leaders	Increase Mather Salem witch trials	.
Athletes	Lou Gehrig baseball player	Wilma Rudolph Olympic gold medal winner	Tiger Woods golfer
Civil Rights Leaders	Martin Luther King civil rights leader	Rosa Parks bus desegregation	Sojourner Truth Former slave
	Frederick Douglass Abolitionist	Mary Ann Shadd Cary Civil rights leader	James Forten Inventor, abolitionist
Composers	Beethoven composer
Artists	John James Audubon artist and naturalist	Gutzon Borglum sculptor, Mount Rushmore	Ansel Adams photographer

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