Gutzon Borglum was the principal sculptor of Mount Rushmore, the South Dakota monument featuring four U.S. presidents.
Borglum directed the carving of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln into Mount Rushmore’s granite face. Work began in 1927 and continued until 1941, when the project ended after Borglum’s death and the exhaustion of available funds.
The monument was conceived by South Dakota historian Doane Robinson as a way to attract visitors to the Black Hills. Borglum reshaped the proposal into a national monument honoring presidents associated with the nation’s founding, expansion, preservation, and development.
The completed faces are about 60 feet high. The project used dynamite, pneumatic drills, and detailed measuring techniques. A planned chamber behind the faces, intended to hold historical records, was begun but not completed as originally envisioned.