Converted to EAD3 : Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Version 3 : Release: 1.1.1 : Release Date: 2019-12-16. Validating against latest version of schema.
Contact information: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm79013284
Collection material in English
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
The papers of Gutzon Borglum, artist, author, and sculptor, were given to the Library of Congress in several installments by his widow, Mary Montgomery Borglum, from 1951 to 1953, by his son, Lincoln Borglum, from 1916 to 1965, and by his granddaughter, Robin Borglum Carter Kennedy, in 2020. Additional papers were transferred from the United States National Park Service at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota in 1973. A microfilm of original material in private hands was purchased by the Library in 1953.
The first installment of the Borglum Papers was processed in 1952. Additions were processed in 1971 and 1973, and the finding aid was revised in 1979 and 2011. An Oversize series was created in 2015. The 2021 Addition was processed and the finding aid revised by Andrea J. Briggs in 2021. Manuscript staff involved in processing and revision of the finding aid prior to 2021 include Grover Batts and Joseph Sullivan. Some items in the Gutzon Borglum Papers have undergone mold remediation, particularly in the 2021 Addition.
Some photographs have been transferred to the Library's Prints and Photographs Division where they are identified as part of the Gutzon Borglum Papers. Patrons are encouraged to contact the Prints and Photographs Division in advance of a research visit.
Related collections in the Manuscript Division include the papers of Solon Hannibal Borglum, sculptor and younger brother of Gutzon Borglum, and the Montgomery family papers, which includes correspondence between Mary Montgomery Borglum and her husband Gutzon Borglum.
Copyright in the unpublished writings of Gutzon Borglum in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the public.
The papers of Gutzon Borglum are open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.
Microfilm on one reel was received as part of the papers of Gutzon Borglum and is listed and described in this finding aid. This microfilm is not available for interlibrary loan.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container or reel number, Gutzon Borglum Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of Gutzon Borglum (1867-1941), born John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum, span the years 1881-2019, with the bulk concentrated in the period 1912-1941. Consisting of diaries, general and family correspondence, financial matter, subject files, and other personal material, the papers include two additions containing records of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Commission transferred from the National Park Service at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, as well as family papers of Gutzon Borglum's second wife, Mary Montgomery Borglum, and son, Lincoln Borglum. The collection documents Borglum's artistic career as well as activities in such diverse fields as politics in the Republican and Progressive parties, as a member of several aeronautical societies and as a freemason, civic affairs including highway planning, and Native American affairs pertaining primarily to the Oglala Sioux Tribe of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota, and is organized into nine series: Diaries, Family Papers, General Correspondence, Subject File, Speeches and Articles, Miscellany, Addition, 2021 Addition, and Oversize.
The most extensive files concern Borglum's most ambitious and best-known projects, an uncompleted memorial to the Confederacy at Stone Mountain, Georgia, and the faces of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt on Mount Rushmore. There is also a great deal of correspondence and related papers concerning the investigation of the aircraft manufacturing industry in 1918 that Borglum had instigated.
The papers also contain a group of correspondence exchanged by various members of Borglum's family, Borglum's financial papers, and a number of his speeches and articles. Prominent among the correspondents are Henry Harley Arnold, Newton Diehl Baker, Calvin Coolidge, Josephus Daniels, Daniel Chester French, Warren G. Harding, Herbert Hoover, Harold L. Ickes, Robert Todd Lincoln, Auguste Rodin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Jacob H. Schiff, George Bernard Shaw, William Allen White, Woodrow Wilson, and Frank Lloyd Wright. A small part of his correspondence, including letters from presidents and other notables, is also available on microfilm.
The Addition series, 1920-1941, is comprised of the records of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Commission. Dated chiefly from 1930 to 1940, the records contain the correspondence of Borglum as sculptor and director of the project; his son, Lincoln Borglum, superintendent; John A. Boland, commission secretary; and others. Also included are telegrams, speeches, newspaper clippings, contracts, blueprints, audit reports, annual reports, treasurer's reports, brochures, charts, printed matter, and miscellaneous material. The records are concerned with the commission's funding, promotion and publicity of the project, project expenditures, the appointment of commissioners, and the placement of the commission under the Department of the Interior. Among the correspondents are George W. Norris, Key Pittman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Julius Rosenwald, Fred Sargent, and William Williamson.
The 2021 Addition, 1881-2019, consists of correspondence, subject files, material relating to Gutzon Borglum's artworks and projects, articles, essays, and other writings by and about him. It also contains family papers primarily relating to Lincoln Borglum and Mary Montgomery Borglum, comprised of correspondence, diaries, subject files, writings and manuscripts, press clippings, and material relating to Lincoln Borglum's artworks, projects, and business ventures. Mary Montgomery Borglum's papers include manuscript drafts of her autobiography, detailing her life and her husband's career. Correspondence throughout the 2021 Addition is arranged by the primary sender or recipient; letters to and from Gutzon, Mary, and Lincoln, however, are frequently interfiled with one another throughout the correspondence. Among the correspondents are members of the Roosevelt family, including Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Warren G. Harding, Herbert Hoover, and Robert Lincoln, son of Abraham Lincoln.
This collection is arranged in nine series:
Diaries, appointment books, and address books.
Arranged chronologically.
Letters exchanged by various members of the Borglum family.
Arranged alphabetically by name of family member.
Letters sent and received.
Arranged alphabetically by name of person or organization.
Correspondence, reports, printed matter and other material.
Grouped by subject or work project, with works arranged alphabetically by name of project or location.
Texts of speeches and writings.
Speeches are arranged chronologically; articles are arranged alphabetically by title.
Biographical material, printed matter, and miscellaneous files.
Arranged by type of material.
Records of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Commission relating to Borglum.
Organized into a chronological file arranged chiefly by year and alphabetically therein, and a general file arranged by subject, name of person or organization, or type of material.
Correspondence, family papers, subject files, material relating to Gutzon Borglum's artworks and projects, press clippings, articles, essays, and other writings.
Arranged to reflect the series and groupings in the original portion of the collection.
Blueprints, drawings, maps, plans, and miscellaneous personal material.
Listed and described according to the series, containers, and folders from which the material was separated. The items are physically grouped and housed by size.