Gutzon Borglum
: Gutzon Borglum (1867–1941) was an American sculptor best known for carving Mount Rushmore. Learn about his early life, major works, controversies, and lasting impact on public art.
Introduction
Gutzon Borglum—born John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum—was a towering figure in American monumental sculpture. His ambition, technical daring, and nationalistic vision drove him to transform granite faces into symbols of American leadership. Today, Borglum is most closely associated with Mount Rushmore, though his career also involved controversial associations and many ambitious public commissions. His work—and legacy—force us to reckon with how art, politics, and memory intertwine.
Early Life and Family
Gutzon Borglum was born on March 25, 1867, in St. Charles, Idaho Territory (then part of the American frontier).
In Nebraska, Borglum spent much of his youth; his upbringing in a setting of frontier expansion likely influenced his affinity for grand scale and American themes in his later work.
Education & Artistic Formation
Borglum’s formal artistic training was eclectic and transnational:
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In California, he studied under landscape painter William Keith and Virgil Williams.
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From 1890 to 1893, he went to Paris, studying at reputable institutions such as Académie Julian and the École des Beaux-Arts.
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There, he was influenced by European realist and Beaux-Arts traditions; some sources suggest he encountered the work of Auguste Rodin.
Returning to the US, Borglum settled in New York, where he began receiving commissions and building a reputation as a sculptor of public monuments.
Career and Major Works
Early Commissions & Public Sculpture
From early in his career, Borglum sought public commissions and ambitious works:
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In 1901, he sculpted angels, saints, and apostles for the new Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City.
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In 1906, Borglum had a group sculpture accepted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art—reportedly the first time the museum purchased a sculpture from a living American artist.
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In 1908, he won a major commission to sculpt General Philip Sheridan on horseback, to be placed in Sheridan Circle, Washington, D.C.
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A second version of that Sheridan equestrian statue was later erected in Chicago (1923).
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Other works include memorials like “Rabboni” (a funerary sculpture in Washington, D.C.’s Rock Creek Cemetery) Wars of America in Newark, New Jersey, and a Nathaniel Wheeler Memorial Fountain in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
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At one point, Borglum even revised the design of the torch for the Statue of Liberty, contributing to its aesthetic refinements.
These early projects displayed his interest in national themes, portraiture, and monuments that communicated American identity.
Stone Mountain & the Confederate Monument
One of Borglum’s more controversial commissions was the Stone Mountain project in Georgia, which intended to carve a vast relief of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and Stonewall Jackson into the rock face of Stone Mountain.
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He initially accepted a simpler commission (a bust of Lee) but proposed to expand it into a sweeping frieze including multiple Confederate figures.
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His involvement was supported, in part, by organizations sympathetic to the Confederate memorial cause, including financial backers and associations linked with the Ku Klux Klan.
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However, his relationship with project authorities soured. Borglum eventually destroyed his clay models in frustration over disagreements and withdrew from the project in 1925.
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None of his Stone Mountain relief is preserved; later carving by another sculptor erased his work.
In many ways, Stone Mountain served as a “training ground” for Borglum’s later grander efforts.
Mount Rushmore
The defining work of his career is Mount Rushmore National Memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
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The original idea came from Doane Robinson, a South Dakota historian hoping to boost tourism. Borglum seized the opportunity to execute something of national scale.
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The project officially began in 1927.
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Borglum and his team carved colossal heads of four U.S. presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt.
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These faces are about 60 feet (≈18 m) tall each.
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Borglum handled design, fundraising, public relations, and on-site supervision. When he traveled or raised funds elsewhere, others (notably his son Lincoln Borglum) oversaw carving operations.
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Thomas Jefferson’s face had to be redone because the rock quality was insufficient for the initial carving.
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When Borglum died in 1941, the project was not fully complete; his son Lincoln Borglum supervised the finishing season.
Mount Rushmore remains an iconic American symbol, blending art, nationalism, and identity.
Personality, Ideology, & Controversies
Borglum was known for a big personality, strong ego, and ideological convictions.
However, his career was also clouded by controversial affiliations and beliefs:
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He had connections with Freemasonry—he was active in the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and held various roles within Masonic lodges.
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His involvement in the Stone Mountain project tied him to Confederate memory and groups that supported segregationist views.
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Some historical sources allege that Borglum affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan (or at least maintained ties with its leadership), particularly in relation to the Stone Mountain commission and its financing.
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In later years, Borglum publicly denied official membership in the KKK, but critics argue those denials were political posturing.
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His approach to art was nationalistic: he sought to create “American” art rooted in American history and symbolism, rejecting what he viewed as overreliance on European models.
Thus, Borglum’s legacy is mixed: monumental achievement, artistic ambition, and the evidences of ideological entanglements.
Honors, Death, & Legacy
Borglum passed away on March 6, 1941, in Chicago, Illinois, following complications from surgery and resultant blood clots. Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
His son, Lincoln Borglum, completed the final phases of Mount Rushmore and became its first superintendent.
Borglum’s artistic legacy is substantial:
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He executed more than 170 sculptures in his lifetime.
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He played a key role in establishing the scale and ambition of American public monuments.
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Mount Rushmore remains a major tourist and cultural landmark.
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His controversial legacies prompt ongoing debates about public memory, monumentality, and who is honored in stone.
Lessons & Reflections
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Art at scale demands vision and controversy
Borglum’s ambition to carve presidents into solid rock required not just artistic skill but engineering, fundraising, and audacity. Such works inevitably attract scrutiny. -
Monuments are not neutral
Borglum believed monuments should reflect national character, but his personal ideology suggests that what is memorialized—and how—is deeply political. -
Legacy is complex
The grand faces of Mount Rushmore overshadow Borglum’s more controversial commitments. His life reminds us that creators seldom align neatly with our modern values. -
Intersections of art, identity, and memory
His projects aimed to shape how Americans see themselves. That underscores that monumental art is as much about narrative as aesthetics.
Conclusion
Gutzon Borglum (1867–1941) was a sculptor of rare ambition: one who scaled the heights of both stone and national symbol. He left behind a profound imprint in American visual culture—especially through Mount Rushmore—but also a legacy shadowed by political affiliations and contested meanings. Understanding Borglum is to engage not only with art, but with the American narratives carved in stone, and to ask: Who do we choose to immortalize?