On many occasions when a new project is presented to you on paper and then later you see the accomplishment, you are disappointed. But it is just the opposite of that in what we are looking at now. I had seen photographs. I had seen the drawings. I had talked with those who were responsible for this great work. And yet I had no conception until about ten minutes ago, not only of its magnitude but of its permanent beauty and of its permanent importance.
Mr. Borglum has well said that this can be a monument and an inspiration for the continuance of the democratic-republican form of government, not only in our beloved country but, we hope, throughout the world.
This is the second dedication. There will be others by other Presidents in other years. When we get through there will be something for the American people that will last through not just generations but for thousands of thousands of years. And I think that we can perhaps meditate a little on those Americans ten thousand years from now when the weathering on the faces of Washington and Jefferson and Lincoln shall have proceeded to perhaps a depth of a tenth of an inch, meditate and wonder what our descendants—and I think they will still be here—will think about us. Let us hope that at least they will give us the benefit of the doubt, that they will believe we have honestly striven every day and generation to preserve for our descendants a decent land to live in and a decent form of government to operate under.
Doane Robinson, Senator Norbeck and William Williamson occupied seats in the front row of the platform, with John Boland immediately behind. The President remained in his automobile throughout the ceremony, with his party, including Governor Berry of South Dakota, around him. It was Senator Norbeck’s last public appearance. At the end he smiled and handed to Gutzon a note of a few lines reminding him touchingly of the satisfaction he must feel to see this accomplishment.
At this time, the summer of 1936, the work on the Lincoln face had advanced enough to show his eyes and part of his nose. It was pushed on so that on September 17, 1937, the 150th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution, this head also was ready for unveiling.
For years Gutzon had been undecided whether to carve Lincoln with or without a beard. He had tried it both ways in other carvings with almost equal effect. But he had a feeling that a beard added strength to the face and that the world was more familiar with a bearded Lincoln. That was the face he finally decided to carve. He sent a small model of it to Franklin Roosevelt, carrying out his promise that Roosevelt would be the first to know.
The Lincoln head was dedicated on schedule and for the first time a Rushmore program was carried by radio broadcast to the entire country. Former Congressman Williamson, a member of the Rushmore Commission, presided. United States Senator Edward R. Burke was chief speaker. There was an impressive moment when the sculptor called the roll of “all those friends of Rushmore whose understanding sympathy and instant aid made this great memorial possible, and who are now with the gods—Calvin Coolidge, Peter Norbeck, James Cullinan.” Then taps sounded from the distant heights. The trooper who blew the call was suspended from the side of Washington’s head, a quarter of a mile away.
During the rest of 1937 much work was done on the Roosevelt head. Gutzon wanted it in condition to photograph for the appropriations committee. He himself had to spend much time in Washington worrying about the financing. He also made a brief trip to France to look after the erection of his statue of Tom Paine, modeled in the Hermosa studio.
As a model for Roosevelt he used a bust of the President that he had made during his lifetime. There was trouble finding stone enough for the head. He had to go back 120 feet in the rock before the model could be fitted. This was trying work.
All in all, 1937 was a typical Borglum year. His contract with the Commission was due for revision. The matter dragged along for months before an agreement could be reached. The sculptor got no pay for all that year, and he had to pay his lawyers a quarter of what he would have received to get any contract at all. The new contract was, in the main, satisfactory. It provided that the sculptor working with the Commission should prosecute work on the memorial to a successful conclusion. Gutzon felt that nothing but his death could stop it now.
In 1938 there was a tremendous rush of tourists who could hardly be accommodated. Congress appropriated $300,000 for the comfort of visitors and the finishing of the carvings. In the same year the Rushmore Commission was reorganized. Senator Key Pittman, long a friend of Rushmore, became chairman, succeeding Fred Sargent, who had died. Kent Keller, chairman of the House Library Committee, became vice-chairman. An executive office was established at Rushmore for the handling of accounts and materials.
The new commission met at Rushmore in August 1938, and the sculptor made a report. He wasn’t worried about the statues any more, now that he’d hit enough rock to take Roosevelt’s face. But his plans for the future included a lot of other things, including a big storehouse, more electric power, an adequate water supply to replace the trucking of water four or five miles in cans. He said it was time to begin work on the Hall and Stairway under the figures as specified in the original contract. And he got everything but the Hall and Stairway.
The President’s reorganization bill of 1939, which conferred additional control over Rushmore to the Department of the Interior, caused havoc. Work on the Hall was immediately discontinued over Gutzon’s protest. Construction of the storehouse was stopped. Lumber and materials were left strewn about to be ruined by the weather. He complained to the President and got a compromise order. The Commission was authorized to control carving and finish the storehouse. But the Commission still refused to permit Gutzon to dig his Hall.
It would have been an amazing thing, this Hall, and one day possibly will be. It was to be a room cut out of the solid rock 100 × 80 × 32 feet to an arched ceiling, finished in dressed granite. Here Borglum had planned to store the records of electricity beginning with Franklin—light, heat, music, radio, telephone, telegraph and controls of power as they were used in the spread of the republic. Man’s accomplishments were to be preserved here, sealed in airtight glass cases. If such an exhibition could be provided, he declared, the world a thousand years from now would have something interesting and educational to look at.
In 1939 South Dakota celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its statehood, and a meeting of the people was held at Rushmore. Governor Harlan J. Bushfield, later U. S. Senator, said, “At this time, when freedom and democracy have been challenged in so many parts of the world, no better place for this ceremony could possibly be selected than the Black Hills and particularly this Shrine of Democracy.”
The Sioux Indians were there under Chief Henry Standing Bear, camped in wigwams around the base of Rushmore cliff. Some 15,000 people had come from all parts of South Dakota and neighboring states. Doane Robinson appeared in the same suit of clothes and the same hat he had worn on statehood day fifty years before. It seemed to be a fitting contribution to Rushmore’s most enthusiastic celebration.
Across the country in Washington, Congressman Francis Case, now Senator, of South Dakota, whose home at Custer was virtually in the shadow of the memorial, was carrying on the old fight for funds. To a Congressional committee he said:
The best answer to every question about Rushmore is to see it.... I have seen it grow from a dream to a reality.... The soundness of Doane Robinson’s idea, the dogged persistence of the late Senator Peter Norbeck, and the ability of Gutzon Borglum to inspire people with the works of his hands and with his vigorous exposition of American ideals, have kept the project going on....
And Mr. Case read into the record a letter from John Boland which said in part:
Mr. Borglum is an artist. I am a businessman. Therefore it is only natural that we should at times disagree regarding the business functions of the commission. Such differences, however, have never been serious and an amicable understanding has always been reached. My only desire is to have the Mount Rushmore memorial completed in the best possible manner and to have Mr. Borglum carry on his great work with the assistance of his son, Lincoln, the continued co-operation of the commission and the efficient supervision of the National Park Service.
So presently all human troubles had been wafted away from Rushmore, and briefly the atmosphere was filled with the sweetness and light that Gutzon had foreseen. As the park was landscaped and the carving of the mountain went on with effortless speed, nobody could remember the charge that Gutzon Borglum had an ungovernable temper. He was a keen observer, but he was temperate and he was polite.
One remembers the day when Walter Travis of the Rapid City Journal paid one of his routine calls at Rushmore. Gutzon beamed on him. Travis knew that Gutzon had recently been in a long and futile argument with Rapid City’s administration on the desirability of straightening and decorating Rapid River. But he smiled, too. It was none of his business.
Gutzon pushed out his hand for a hearty greeting. “Welcome, Speedy,” he said. “And how is everything in your backward and objectionable little village?”
“Only a Borglum could say,” answered Travis, “because Borglums never forget.”
People whose contacts with Borglum spread over a long time know that in his own opinion he was indubitably right. But looking back over the years they realize that most of the time he really was right, and for the rest of the time, however reluctantly, he would listen to reason. He wanted to get things done and he had a great impatience with people who stopped him. But no one of his friends who knew his generosity and gentleness ever hinted that his most vocal indignation could be classed as ungovernable temper. Temper, possibly ... but not ungovernable.
He was one of this generation’s most accomplished showmen. He took the jibes of the newspapermen with good grace. And he gave them back the same way. You may remember the matter of Washington’s nose. Some reporter, trying to spur him into a grand speech, asked him if he would call the figures on Rushmore as perfect as they might be. The great sculptor shook his head. “Not today,” he said. “The nose of Washington is an inch too long. It’s better that way, though. We are slowly approaching perfection. It will erode enough to be exactly right in 10,000 years.”
Borglum, possibly, was not the man that a dullard could understand. It is not enough to say that he was a great sculptor—perhaps the greatest of his generation. He had to be many more things to get the Mount Rushmore memorial finished. Looking back over his story one is definitely confused. Should he be given world honors for his art, or for his remarkable aptitude for getting money out of smooth and experienced politicians, or for his incredible knowledge about the weakness of stone, or for his skill as a dynamiter, or for his absolutely unbreakable will? You may take your choice and be partly right. If he had lacked any of these attributes, Rushmore would still be back in a wilderness with dead trees piling up about its base.
Borglum died suddenly on March 6, 1941, in Chicago. He had spoken a few nights before for Dr. Harry Kelly, a friend of many years’ standing, in Park Ridge. He was in severe pain, yet he stood for more than an hour to deliver an impassioned plea for faith in America and the principles of personal liberty on which the government was founded. He was plainly ill at the close. He was taken to a hospital the next day and eventually failed to survive a coronary thrombosis. The years on Rushmore had done his heart no good.
Despite the fact that he was supposed to have been making his fortune in the Black Hills, he died thousands of dollars in debt. It was years before the hospital and doctor bills could be paid. Lincoln Borglum knew what details were still lacking on the almost finished figures on Rushmore. The Commission, with the concurrence of the Park Service, designated him to finish the work. Lincoln refused to make any changes or to carry the work any farther than indicated by his father’s models.
Congress passed a resolution for Gutzon Borglum’s interment in a tomb to be carved in the rock at Mount Rushmore. But Gutzon, some time before his death, had extracted a promise from Lincoln that he should be buried among the flowers in California. His friends, led by Commander E. F. McDonald, Jr., decided with the family that his wishes should be carried out.
So he was buried in a memorial court of honor with the inscription composed by his lifelong friend Rupert Hughes close by him:
Then France who gave him fame;
England welcomed him: America called him home.
His genius for the exquisite as for the colossal
Gave permanence on canvas, in bronze,
In marble, to moods of beauty or passion,
To figures of legend and history.
Nations, cities, colleges paid him tribute.
As patriot he stripped corruption bare. As
Statesman he toiled for equality in the
Rights of man. At last he carved a
Mountain for a monument: He made the mountain
Chant, “Remember! These giant
Souls set America free and kept her free.
Hold fast your sacred heritage, Americans!
Remember! Remember!”
So, for a time, there is a pause in the story of Gutzon Borglum. You may still rouse an argument about the art of mountain carving. Some relicts of the Stone Mountain Association are still convinced that he was angry-tempered and erratic and that nobody could get along with him. What they do not see is that all such things make no difference. The Four Faces of Rushmore stand looking into the sun. And Gutzon Borglum seems likely to live as long as any human man who ever trod this earth, except the four he helped make immortal.
INDEX
Abbot, Harry, 110
Adair, Forrest, 177, 183
Alderman, Edwin A., 1151-152, 153
Altgeld, Governor John P., 126, 130-133
Anglin, Margaret, 272
Anthony, Susan B., 281
Arkright, Preston, 184, 223
Arnold, Reuben, 190
Art Students’ League, 74
Aycock Memorial, 154-156
Bad Lands, 279, 280
Baillie, Robert (“Bob”), 80, 168, 170
Baldwin, “Lucky,” 43
Baker, Newton D., 139, 144-145
Bannwort, Carl, 163-164
Barlow, Lester, 180, 210, 263
Barnard, George Gray, 71
Bates, Blanche, 273-274
Beecher, Henry Ward, 129
Bell, Marian, 79
Biddle, A. J. Drexel, 259, 261
Black Hills, 276-280 et seq.
Blavatsky, Madame Elena, 37
Boland, John A., 290, 298, 304-305, 314
Borglum, Elizabeth Putnam, 42-43, 55-56
Borglum, Gutzon, 15 et seq.
Borglum, Ida Michelson, 28
Borglum, James de la Mothe, 27-28, 30-34, 36-38
Borglum, Lincoln, 177, 237, 238, 270-271, 298, 302, 314, 316
Borglum, Mary Ellis, 177, 271
Borglum, Mary Montgomery, 104 et seq.
Borglum, Solon, 28, 39, 68
Borglum Kloster, 25, 26
Borglum Memorial Studio, 226
Borie, Adolph, 268
Bradford, Ralph, 266
Brady, “Diamond Jim,” 63
Brangwyn, Frank, 58
Bricka, Madame Helen, 63
Bryan, William Jennings, 133
Bulow, Governor William J., 301
Burke, “Calamity Jane,” 277
Burke, Senator Edward R., 311
Burmeister, Charles, 248
Bushfield, Harlan J., 313
Butterfield, General Daniel, 134
Butterworth, Frank, 109
Cameron, Colonel Beniham, 214
Cannon, Speaker Joseph G., 119
Case, Francis, 314
Chalmers, Stephen, 126, 127
Chavannes, Puvis de, 47, 49
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, 17
Chicago and North Western Railway, 17, 308
Clarke, Sir Purdon, 85
Coolidge, President Calvin, 17, 202, 284-288, 290, 291, 311
Connally, Thomas W., 190
Corot, Jean Baptiste Camille, 49
Corpus Christi, Texas, sea wall, 229, 231
Crandall, Arthur, 110-111
Crane, Charles R., 290
Crews, Laura Hope, 272
Cullinan Joseph S., 290, 300-301, 303-304, 307-308, 311
Czecho-Slovak Army, 250-254
Dalou, Jules, 49
Daniels, Bebe, 40
Daniels, Judge Frank, 155
Daniels, Josephus, 154, 155, 215
Davis, Bob, 41, 94, 126, 268
Davis, Cliff (“Dynamite”), 188, 223
Davis, Jefferson, 171, 175, 188, 199, 203, 204, 209, 217
Davis, Madge, 268
Davis, Sam, 95, 96-98
Day, C. M., 290
Dempsey, Jack, 260
Drought, Mrs. J. P., 227-228
Duncan, Isadora, 64
Dunne, Governor Edward F., 133
DuPont, Senator Coleman, 17, 262
Eassie, R. M., 64
Edwards, Henry Stilwell, 201
Ehlers, Colonel E. M., 135
Ellis, Dr. James N., 175, 177
Enters, Angna, 271
Faherty, Michael J., 157-158
Faville, William B., 74
Fort Pierre, 280
Frankfurter, Felix, 131
Frémont, Jessie Benton, 41-42, 43, 45, 53, 54, 56
Frémont, General John C., 41-42
Fuller, Loie, 62
Fuller, W. W., 152-153, 209
Game Lodge, 285
Garrison, Bob, 79
Gary, Judge Elbert, 209
Gavin, William A., 256-262
Gettysburg Memorial, see North Carolina Civil War Memorial
Gibson, Charles Dana, 262
Greenway, General John, 232
Greenway, Isabella, 232
Griffin, George Butler, 40
Gurney, D. B., 290
Haines, Lynn, 172, 173
Harris, Frank, 79
Harvey, Robert, 190
Hickok, “Wild Bill,” 277
Heins, G. L., 88
Hill, Alice, 79
Hill, Ebenezer, 114
Hitchcock, Senator Gilbert, 147
Hoffman, Malvina, 79
Holden, Hale, 290
Homestake Mine, 287, 289
Hood, Ethel, 79
Hoover, President Herbert, 290, 294
Howell, Albert, 213
Hoyt, Cornelia, 175
Hudson, E. W., 89
Hughes, Charles Evans, 117, 124, 125, 148
Hughes, Rupert, 104, 316-317
Huntington, Collis P., 45-46
Inman, Mrs. Sam, 190
Insull, Samuel, 297
International Sporting Club, 255-262
Ito, Michow, 271
Jackson, General Thomas J. (“Stonewall”), 171, 175, 185, 188, 193, 199, 209
Jefferson, President Thomas, 152, 281, 298-299, 303, 309
Johnson, Governor Hiram, 119
Jones, Dr. Ashby, 223
Kaufman, John, 223
Keith, William, 41
Keller, Kent, 272-312
Kelly, Dr. Harry, 316
Kennedy, Charles Rann, 269
Key, Mayor James L., 222
King, Stanley, 143, 144
Kingsley Society, 59
Kirby, John, 209
Lee, General Robert E., 21, 102, 171, 174, 175, 184-185, 191-199, 212, 218-219, 221
Lewis and Clark Expedition, 280
Lincoln, President Abraham, 21, 85-86, 99, 101-103, 159, 160, 161, 162, 281, 298-299, 306, 309, 311
Lincoln, Robert, 86
Lober, George, 79
Lodge, Senator Henry Cabot, 202
Lowden, Frank O., 290
Luks, George, 83, 252
Lum, Ralph, 101, 159, 162, 163, 166, 167, 168, 170
Lummis, Charles, 40, 51, 52
McConnell, James Rogers, 19, 151-154
McCord, L. Lawrence, 222
McDonald, Commander Eugene F., Jr., 316
McGuire, O. R., 49
McKinley, Congressman William, 118
McKinley, President William, 116
McLean, Governor Angus, 214
Mackay, Clarence, 95-98
Mackay, John, 94-97
Malin, M. F., 79
“Mares of Diomedes, The,” 71, 84-85, 99
Masaryk, Thomas, 250, 251, 254
Mason, Frank, 175
Mason, Mrs. Frank, 175, 221
Matthison, Edith Wynne, 82, 269
Mellon, Andrew, 202-203, 287, 288
Meloney, Mrs. William Brown, 249, 265
Metropolitan Parks Association, 247-249
Midland Railway Company, 60-61
Miller, Henry, 272
Mitchell, John Purroy, 162
Montgomery, Mary, see Borglum, Mary Montgomery
Moody, William Vaughn, 272
Mount Harney Memorial Association, 287, 296
Mount Rushmore, 17-19, 21, 86, 278-283, 284-315 et passim
Mount Rushmore National Memorial Commission, 20, 290, 296
Munger, Dr. T. T., 105
Myrick, Herbert, 17, 287
National Arts Club, 73-74
National Sculpture Society, 73
Nocquet, Paul, 69-70, 266-267
Norbeck, Senator Peter, 277, 280, 281, 285, 287-289, 301-302, 303, 311, 314
North Carolina Civil War Memorial, 232-235
“Nude Descending a Staircase,” 72-73
O’Harra, Dr. Cleophas C., 276
Orme, Coribel Kellogg, 175, 212
Paderewski, Ignace Jan, 235-243, 254
Pardo, Gregory, 49, 50
Pearsall, Colonel P. M., 155
Percy, Julia, 80-81
Perkins, George W., 114, 118, 119, 123, 248
Peters, Dr. John, 91-93
Pickett’s Charge, see North Carolina Civil War Memorial
Pittman, Senator Key, 312
Plane, C. Helen, 16, 173-178, 189, 196, 197, 198, 215, 223, 278
Poe, Dr. Clarence, 155-156
Potter, Bishop Henry C., 92
Putnam, Arthur, 43
Randolph, Hollins, 190, 192, 197, 209, 210, 211, 217, 218, 221.
Rayford, Julian Lee, 267-268
Raymond, Mayor Thomas L., 168
Reid, Whitelaw, 46
Reilly, James, 270
“Return of the Boer, The,” 62
Rhind, J. Massey, 159
Rickenbacker, Captain Eddie, 139-140
Rivers, R. (“Petie”), 190, 192
Road Beautification, 230-231
Robinson, Boardman, 268
Robinson, Doane, 16-17, 276, 281, 288, 293, 313-314
Rodin, Auguste, 47-49, 89
Rollins, Philip, 53-54
Roosevelt, President Franklin D., 309-311, 313
Roosevelt, President Theodore, 45, 86, 98, 103, 110, 112, 113-125, 169, 266, 277, 281, 299, 312
Roper, Mrs. Robert Thornton, 175
Rosenwald, Julius, 290
Rushmore, Charles, 17, 287
Rushmore National Memorial Society of the Black Hills, 290
Ruskin, John, 59
Russell, Lillian, 274
Russell, Tom, 225
Ryan, John D., 139
Saint-Gaudens, Augustus, 68, 70-71, 82, 127
St. John the Divine, Cathedral of, 87-93
St. Mary’s College, Kansas, 37-38, 39
Sargent, Fred W., 290, 308
Saunders, George, 225
Schiff, Jacob, 74, 248
Schiff, Mortimer, 82
Sedden, Mrs. J., 50
Selfridge, Lieutenant, 245
Shaw, George Bernard, 59
Sheridan, Mrs. Philip H., 98, 100
Sheridan Memorial, Chicago, 156-158
Sheridan Memorial, Washington, 98-101
Shrine of Democracy, see Mount Rushmore
Shumaker, Theo, 277
Smith, Charles E., 302
Smith, Edith Cornell, 267
Smith, Herbert Knox, 111, 114
Smith, Spencer J., 42
Smith, Sydney, 267
Sobieski, Carl, 64
Sparks, Governor, 96
Spoonts, Lorine Jones, 290
Squier, General George 143
Stephens Memorial, 220-221
Stetson, Francis L., 248
Stevenson, Robert Louis, 126-128
Stewart, John A., 119
Stillman, James, 85
Stone Mountain, 15, 17, 18, 19, 86, 93, 167, 168, 171-181, 182-220, 221-224
Stone Mountain Coin, 200-203
Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial Association, 16, 171, 189-190, 196, 201, 205, 206-221
Stone Mountain Executive Committee, 189, 199-200, 201
Sullivan, Louis, 67
Sutton, W. A., 190
Taft, President William Howard, 116-117
Teck, Duchess of, 63
Teck, Duke of, 63
Texas Centennial, 230
Thompson, William Hale, 133, 157
Tiffany, Marie, 183
Tolentino, William, 79
Trail Drivers’ Association, 224-226
Travis, Walter (“Speedy”), 314-315
Trudeau, Dr. Edward L., 19, 126-129
Tucker, Jesse, 178-183, 188, 191-192, 210-212, 214-215, 296-297
Tumulty, Joseph, 140-141
Turner, Eva Griffin, 40-41
Ullman, Isaac, 115
Ulrich, W. R., 222
United Daughters of the Confederacy, 173-174, 176, 188-192, 196, 206-218
Van Horn, Amos, 101, 159
Vanophem, Jean, 188
Venable, Sam, 174-177, 183, 190, 211, 212, 218, 221, 222
Victoria, Queen of England, 63
Villa, Hugo, 165-166, 168, 191, 215, 220, 302, 303
Vincent, S. E., 111
Wadsworth, Herbert, 267
Walker, Bill, 259
Walker, James J., 259
Ward, J. Q. A., 98
Wars of America Memorial, 19, 21, 159-170, 182, 271
Washington, President George, 161, 281, 282, 283, 298, 303, 306, 309
Webb, David, 190, 204, 209
Whiting, Lillian, 84
Whitman, Colonel Royal E., 99, 100, 106
Wilbur, R. L., 169
Williams, Henry Smith, 104
Williams, Virgil, 41
Williamson, Congressman William, 277, 288, 290, 311
Willis, G. F., 221
Wilson, President Woodrow, 138, 140-143, 148, 252
Wilson Memorial, 21, 25, 235-243, 302
Winter, Rogers, 190
Wood, General Leonard, 117-124, 262
Wright, Orville, 244
Wright, Wilbur, 244
Wyatt, Henry, 129