Who designed the Mount Rushmore National Memorial’s sculpted heads?

Gutzon Borglum designed the sculpted heads at Mount Rushmore National Memorial.

Borglum selected the four presidents shown on the granite face: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. Work began in 1927 in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and the memorial was officially completed in 1941, several months after Borglum’s death. His son, Lincoln Borglum, helped supervise the final work.

The project was promoted by South Dakota historian Doane Robinson, who wanted a major tourist attraction in the Black Hills. Robinson initially imagined figures of Western heroes, but Borglum favored national political leaders whose careers represented major stages in U.S. history. The completed carvings are about 60 feet high.

Borglum used dynamite for most of the initial excavation, followed by pneumatic drilling and detailed finishing. The memorial is a federal site managed by the National Park Service. Its location and creation are also connected to the region’s Indigenous history and to debates about land, representation, and the meaning of national monuments.