eBay

A great 1932 press photo of Gutzon Borglum measuring 8 X 10 inches. Gutzin Borglum sculptor broadcasting from old WJZ

BORGLUM, JOHN GUTZON DE LA MOTHE (1867–1941). Gutzon Borglum, painter and sculptor, was born in Idaho on March 25, 1867, the son of Danish immigrants James and Ida (Michelson) Borglum. He first studied art in California under William Keith and Virgil Williams. There the large stagecoach painting Runnin' Out the Storm, currently in the San Antonio Museum of Art, was completed. In 1890 Borglum went abroad to study for two years in Paris at the Académie Julien and the École des Beaux Arts and also under individual masters, the most important of whom was Auguste Rodin. Borglum exhibited in the Old Salon in 1891 and 1892 as a painter and in 1891 in the New Salon as a sculptor with Death of the Chief, for which he was awarded membership in the Société des Beaux-Artes.

After a year of work in Spain he returned to California, in 1893, and from there went to England in 1896. In England he painted portraits and murals, illustrated books, and produced sculpture. Apache Pursued, executed at this time, is owned in replica by the Witte Museum in San Antonio. Sculpture became Borglum's prime artistic medium; examples of his work include the head of Lincoln (1908) at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., a seated bronze sculpture of Lincoln (1911) in Newark, New Jersey, two equestrian statues of Philip H. Sheridan (1907, 1924), and the Wars of America group (1926). The most famous and monumental of his works are the sculptures at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, South Dakota, of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. These were dedicated on August 10, 1927, and completed, after Borglum's death, by his son Lincoln.

In 1925 the sculptor moved to Texas to work on the monument to trail drivers commissioned by the Trail Drivers Association. He completed the model in 1925, but due to lack of funds it was not cast until 1940, and then was only a fourth its originally planned size. It stands in front of the Texas Pioneer and Trail Drivers Memorial Hall next to the Witte Museum in San Antonio. Borglum lived at the historic Menger Hotel, which in the 1920s was the residence of a number of artists. He subsequently planned the redevelopment of the Corpus Christi waterfront; the plan failed, although a model for a statue of Christ intended for it was later modified by his son and erected on a mountaintop in South Dakota. While living and working in Texas, Borglum took an interest in local beautification. He promoted change and modernity, although he was berated by academicians.

Borglum was married to Mrs. Elizabeth Putnam in 1889; the marriage ended in divorce in 1908. On November 6, 1941, Borglum died in Chicago, Illinois, survived by his wife, Mary (Montgomery), and his two children. He was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California.

rtist. Best known for being the Mount Rushmore sculptor. He was born John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum in Idaho to a Danish immigrant who embraced the Mormon religion and immediately acquired two wives who were sisters. When Borglum was 4, his father, a frontier doctor, left the church, discarding young Borglum's mother so he could return to society with only one wife and a brood of children. The father was a wanderlust moving first to Omaha and then to Los Angeles where he set up a medical practice. Young Gutzon began to paint portraits and landscapes with great success and opened up his own art studio in the basement of The Times building in downtown Los Angeles. He was commissioned by the Times publisher to construct an eagle to adorn the top of the building. The finished product sculpt from wood weighed 200 pounds with a wingspan of 7 feet. It perched atop three Times buildings. Showing extreme wear, it was moved inside to protect it from decay and it can be seen today in the lobby of the Times building on Broadway. His career was moved forward by a strange marriage to a woman twice his age, an artist in her own right. His work attracted the backing of socialite, Mrs Spencer H. Smith who invested heavily in his talents and paid for his art training in Europe where Borglum learned sculpting in Paris. In 1893, Borglum and his wife returned to Los Angeles lured by the climate and a commission for three landscapes from former California Gov. Leland Stanford. They set up studio in the foothills of Sierra Madre in the outskirts of the city. By 1896, he was nearly 30 and broke. Returning to Europe, spending six years before returning minus his wife. he met Mary Montgomery on the return Atlantic crossing whom he would eventually marry. He began working in earnest, within a span of ten years he created a marble bust of Lincoln which can be seen today in the Capitol rotunda; sculpted more than 100 pieces for the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. In 1915 he was commissioned to carve a 1,200 foot long relief of Confederate soldiers on Georgia's Stone Mountain by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, on land that was owned by the head of the Ku Klux Klan. He abandoned the project after a quarrel and left for South Dakota. The work was completed by others but not until 1970. South Dakota needed a tourist attraction and in 1927 Borglum was commissioned to carve the 60 foot high heads of four presidents all selected by the artist himself. He labored for 14 years fighting for funding and struggling against personal bankruptcy and public indifference. In 1941 with the project almost completed, he suffered a heart attack a few days before his 74th birthday. His son, Lincoln, finished the project later that year, just prior to the start of WW II. His body was returned to Los Angeles and interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale in the Memorial Court of Honor. The four presidential heads of Mt. Rushmore are depicted in bronze on his plaque.

John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum (March 25, 1867 – March 6, 1941) was an American artist and sculptor. He is most associated with his creation of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial at Mount Rushmore, South Dakota. He was associated with other public works of art, including a bust of Abraham Lincoln exhibited[5] in the White House by Theodore Roosevelt and now held in the United States Capitol Crypt in Washington, D.C..

Contents

    1 Early life
    2 Elizabeth Janes Putnam Borglum
    3 New York City
    4 Mary Montgomery Williams Borglum
    5 Monuments
    6 Public life
    7 Stone Mountain
    8 Mount Rushmore
    9 Other works
    10 Death
    11 In popular culture
    12 Publications
    13 Gallery
    14 See also
    15 References
    16 Other sources
    17 External links

Early life

The son of Danish-American immigrants, Gutzon Borglum was born in 1867 in St. Charles in what was then Idaho Territory. Borglum was a child of Mormon polygamy. His father, Jens Møller Haugaard Børglum (1839–1909), had two wives when he lived in Idaho: Gutzon's mother, Christina Mikkelsen Borglum (1847–1871) and Gutzon's mother's sister Ida, who was Jens's first wife.[6] Jens Borglum decided to leave Mormonism and moved to Omaha, Nebraska where polygamy was both illegal and taboo.[7] Jens Borglum worked mainly as a woodcarver before leaving Idaho to attend the Saint Louis Homeopathic Medical College[8] in Saint Louis, Missouri. At that point "Jens and Christina divorced, the family left the Mormon church, and Jens, Ida, their children, and Christina’s two sons, Gutzon and Solon, moved to St. Louis, where Jens earned a medical degree. (Jens) then moved the family to Nebraska, where he became a county doctor".[9][10] Upon his graduation from the Missouri Medical College in 1874, Dr. Borglum moved the family[9] to Fremont, Nebraska, where he established a medical practice. Gutzon Borglum remained in Fremont until 1882, when his father enrolled him in St. Mary's College, Kansas.[11]

After a brief stint at Saint Mary's College, Gutzon Borglum relocated to Omaha, Nebraska, where he apprenticed in a machine shop and graduated from Creighton Preparatory School.
Elizabeth Janes Putnam Borglum

Elizabeth Janes was born in Racine, WI on December 21, 1848.[12][13] She studied art and music in Boston, New York, and Paris. Her marriage to J. W. Putnam ended in divorce. She taught music in Milwaulkee before moving to San Francisco in 1881, studying art at the School of Design under Virgil Williams and L. P. Latimer,[14][15] moving to Los Angeles, California in 1884 and the next year began art study with William Keith. In 1885, she met Gutzon Borglum, who was also a student of Keith’s.[16][17][18] In 1889 in Los Angeles she married Borglum who was her pupil and 19 years younger.[19] The Borglums spent the next ten years traveling widely, studying and exhibiting in Europe. Borglum was trained in Paris at the Académie Julian, where he came to know Auguste Rodin and was influenced by Rodin's impressionistic light-catching surfaces. Borglum's works were accepted to the 1891 and the 1892 Paris Salons. In Paris, Elizabeth studied with Felix Hildago. Elizabeth took part in the 1892 Columbus Centennial Exhibition in Spain. A return trip to California proved to be ill-timed, as the state was in the throes of a financial depression. In 1893, they purchased a home, “El Rosario”, in Sierra Madre, California. In 1896 Gutzon and Elizabeth went back to Europe, this time to London.[20] In London, she studied with California painter Emil Carlsen. Due to marital problems she returned to southern California in 1902, while Borglum was living in England.[19] After she and Borglum separated in 1903 and divorced in 1908, Elizabeth stayed at “El Rosario”.[21][22][23][24][25][26][27] She continued her art career, painting and teaching and taking classes from J. Foxcroft Cole. In 1915, she moved to Venice, California,[28] dying there on May 21, 1922. Elizabeth Borglum's work is rooted in the Tonalist-Barbizon esthetic.[29]

    Member:[30]

        Ruskin Art Club (LA).

    Exhibited:

        California Agricultural Society, 1883;
        Western Art Association (Omaha), 1890 (gold medal);[21][31]
        Paris Salons, 1890s;
        Alaska-Yukon Expo (Seattle), 1909 (silver medal);
        Panama-California International Expo (San Diego), 1915 (bronze medal);
        San Francisco Art Association, 1918.

    Works held:

        Nevada Museum (Reno);
        Orange County (CA) Museum.

New York City

Back in the U.S. in New York City he sculpted saints and apostles for the new Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in 1901; in 1906 he had a group sculpture accepted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art[32]— the first sculpture by a living American the museum had ever purchased—and made his presence further felt with some portraits. He also won the Logan Medal of the Arts. His reputation soon surpassed that of his younger brother, Solon Borglum, already an established sculptor.
Mary Montgomery Williams Borglum

Borglum married Mary Montgomery Williams, on May 20, 1909, with whom he had three children,[6] including a son, Lincoln, and a daughter, Mary Ellis (Mel) Borglum Vhay (1916–2002).
Monuments

In 1925, the sculptor moved to Texas to work on the monument to trail drivers commissioned by the Trail Drivers Association. He completed the model in 1925, but due to lack of funds it was not cast until 1940, and then was only a fourth its originally planned size. It stands in front of the Texas Pioneer and Trail Drivers Memorial Hall next to the Witte Museum in San Antonio. Borglum lived at the historic Menger Hotel, which in the 1920s was the residence of a number of artists. He subsequently planned the redevelopment of the Corpus Christi waterfront; the plan failed,[why?] although a model for a statue of Christ intended for it was later modified by his son and erected on a mountaintop in South Dakota. While living and working in Texas, Borglum took an interest in local beautification. He promoted change and modernity, although he was berated by academicians.[33]

A fascination with gigantic scale and themes of heroic nationalism suited his extroverted personality. His head of Abraham Lincoln, carved from a six-ton block of marble, was exhibited in Theodore Roosevelt's White House and can be found in the United States Capitol Crypt in Washington, D.C. A "patriot," believing that the "monuments we have built are not our own," he looked to create art that was "American, drawn from American sources, memorializing American achievement," according to a 1908 interview article. Borglum was highly suited to the competitive environment surrounding the contracts for public buildings and monuments, and his public sculpture is sited all around the United States.
General Philip Sheridan, sculpted by Borglum in 1908, in Washington, D.C.

In 1908, Borglum won a competition for a statue of the Civil War General Philip Sheridan to be placed in Sheridan Circle in Washington. D.C. A second version of General Philip Sheridan was erected in Chicago, Illinois, in 1923. Winning this competition was a personal triumph for him because he won out over sculptor J.Q.A. Ward, a much older and more established artist and one whom Borglum had clashed with earlier in regard to the National Sculpture Society. At the unveiling of the Sheridan statue, one observer, President Theodore Roosevelt (whom Borglum was later to include in the Mount Rushmore portrait group), declared that it was "first rate"; a critic wrote that "as a sculptor Gutzon Borglum was no longer a rumor, he was a fact." (Smith:see References)
Public life

Borglum was active in the committee that organized the New York Armory Show of 1913, the birthplace of modernism in American art. By the time the show was ready to open, however, Borglum had resigned from the committee, feeling that the emphasis on avant-garde works had co-opted the original premise of the show and made traditional artists like himself look provincial. He moved into an estate in Stamford, Connecticut[34] in 1914 and lived there for 10 years.

Borglum was an active member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons (the Freemasons), raised in Howard Lodge #35, New York City, on June 10, 1904, and serving as its Worshipful Master 1910–11. In 1915, he was appointed Grand Representative of the Grand Lodge of Denmark near the Grand Lodge of New York. He received his Scottish Rite Degrees in the New York City Consistory on October 25, 1907.[35]

Borglum was a member of the Ku Klux Klan.[36] He was one of the six knights who sat on the Imperial Koncilium in 1923, which transferred leadership of the Ku Klux Klan from Imperial Wizard Colonel Simmons to Imperial Wizard Hiram Evans.[37] In 1925, having only completed the head of Robert E. Lee, Borglum was dismissed from the Stone Mountain project, with some holding that it came about due to infighting within the KKK, with Borglum involved in the strife.[38] Later, he stated, "I am not a member of the Kloncilium, nor a knight of the KKK," but Howard Shaff and Audrey Karl Shaff add that "that was for public consumption."[39] The museum at Mount Rushmore displays a letter to Borglum from D. C. Stephenson, the infamous Klan Grand Dragon who was later convicted of the rape and murder of Madge Oberholtzer. The 8x10 foot portrait contains the inscription "To my good friend Gutzon Borglum, with the greatest respect." Correspondence from Borglum to Stephenson during the 1920s detailed a deep racist conviction in Nordic moral superiority and urges strict immigration policies.[40]
Stone Mountain
Main articles: Stone Mountain and Stone Mountain Memorial half dollar
Stone Mountain located near Atlanta, Georgia

Borglum was initially involved in the carving of Stone Mountain in Georgia. Borglum's nativist stances made him seem an ideologically sympathetic choice to carve a memorial to heroes of the Confederacy, planned for Stone Mountain, Georgia. In 1915, he was approached by the United Daughters of the Confederacy with a project for sculpting a 20-foot (6 m) high bust of General Robert E. Lee on the mountain's 800-foot (240 m) rockface. Borglum accepted, but told the committee, "Ladies, a twenty foot head of Lee on that mountainside would look like a postage stamp on a barn door.'"[41]

Borglum's ideas eventually evolved into a high-relief frieze of Lee, Jefferson Davis, and 'Stonewall' Jackson riding around the mountain, followed by a legion of artillery troops. Borglum agreed to include a Ku Klux Klan altar in his plans for the memorial to acknowledge a request of Helen Plane in 1915, who wrote to him: "I feel it is due to the KKK that saved us from Negro domination and carpetbag rule, that it be immortalized on Stone Mountain".[38]

After a delay caused by World War I, Borglum and the newly chartered Stone Mountain Confederate Monumental Association set to work on this unexampled monument, the size of which had never been attempted before. Many difficulties slowed progress, some because of the sheer scale involved. After finishing the detailed model of the carving, Borglum was unable to trace the figures onto the massive area on which he was working, until he developed a gigantic magic lantern to project the image onto the side of the mountain.

Carving officially began on June 23, 1923, with Borglum making the first cut. At Stone Mountain he developed sympathetic connections with the reorganized Ku Klux Klan, who were major financial backers for the monument. Lee's head was unveiled on Lee's birthday January 19, 1924, to a large crowd, but soon thereafter Borglum was increasingly at odds with the officials of the organization. His domineering, perfectionist, authoritarian manner brought tensions to such a point that in March 1925 Borglum smashed his clay and plaster models. He left Georgia permanently, his tenure with the organization over. None of his work remains, as it was all cleared from the mountain's face for the work of Borglum's replacement Henry Augustus Lukeman. In his abortive attempt however, Borglum had developed the necessary techniques for sculpting on a gigantic scale that made Mount Rushmore possible.[42]
Mount Rushmore
Main article: Mount Rushmore
Mount Rushmore located in the Black Hills of South Dakota

His Mount Rushmore project, 1927–1941, was the brainchild of South Dakota state historian Doane Robinson. His first attempt with the face of Thomas Jefferson was blown up after two years. Dynamite was also used to remove large areas of rock from under Washington's brow. The initial pair of presidents, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson was soon joined by Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.

Ivan Houser, father of John Sherrill Houser, was assistant sculptor to Gutzon Borglum in the early years of carving; he began working with Borglum shortly after the inception of the monument and was with Borglum for a total of seven years. When Houser left Gutzon to devote his talents to his own work, Gutzon's son, Lincoln, took over as Assistant-Sculptor to his father.

Borglum alternated exhausting on-site supervising with world tours, raising money, polishing his personal legend, sculpting a Thomas Paine memorial for Paris and a Woodrow Wilson memorial for Poznań, Poland (1931).[43] In his absence, work at Mount Rushmore was overseen by his son, Lincoln Borglum. During the Rushmore project, father and son were residents of Beeville, Texas. When he died in Chicago, following complications after surgery, his son finished another season at Rushmore, but left the monument largely in the state of completion it had reached under his father's direction.
Other works
Statue of Comstock Lode silver baron John William Mackay (1831–1902), Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno.(1908)
Aviator, Borglum, 1919, University of Virginia
North Carolinian soldiers at the Battle of Gettysburg

In 1909, the sculpture Rabboni was created as a grave site for the Ffoulke Family in Washington, D.C. at Rock Creek Cemetery. [44]

In 1912, the Nathaniel Wheeler Memorial Fountain was dedicated in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Memorial to Robert Louis Stevenson at Baker Cottage, Saranac Lake, New York. Unveiled in 1915.

In 1918, he was one of the drafters of the Czechoslovak declaration of independence.[45]

One of Borglum's more unusual pieces is the Aviator completed in 1919 as a memorial for James R. McConnell, who was killed in World War I while flying for the Lafayette Escadrille. It is located on the grounds of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia.[46]

Four public works by Borglum are in Newark, NJ: Seated Lincoln (1911), Indian and Puritan (1916), Wars of America (1926), and a bas-relief, First Landing Party of the Founders of Newark (1916).[47] These works are actively being researched by Newark historian Guy Sterling.

Borglum sculpted the memorial Start Westward of the United States, which is located in Marietta, Ohio (1938).

He built the statue of Daniel Butterfield at Sakura Park in Manhattan (1918).[48]

He created a memorial to Sacco and Vanzetti (1928), a plaster cast of which is now in the Boston Public Library.[49][50][51][52][53]

Another Borglum design is the North Carolina Monument on Seminary Ridge at the Gettysburg Battlefield in south-central Pennsylvania. The cast bronze sculpture depicts a wounded Confederate officer encouraging his men to push forward during Pickett's Charge. Borglum had also made arrangements for an airplane to fly over the monument during the dedication ceremony on July 3, 1929. During the sculpture's unveiling, the plane scattered roses across the field as a salute to those North Carolinians who had fought and died at Gettysburg.
Death

Borglum died in 1941 due to complications during surgery and is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California in the Memorial Court of Honor.[54] His second wife, Mary Montgomery Williams Borglum (1874–1955) is interred alongside him.
In popular culture

    Canadian artist Christian Cardell Corbet was the first Canadian to sculpt a posthumous medallion of Borglum. It currently resides at the Gutzon Borglum Museum in South Dakota.
    Historian Simon Schama, in his Landscape and Memory, discusses Borglum's life and work.[55]
    Borglum is mentioned in the 2007 film, National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets as having to construct the monument at Mount Rushmore to disguise the natural, physical landmarks that would lead to the location of the lost city of gold, Cibola.
    Borglum is a prominent character in the 2010 novel, Black Hills, by Dan Simmons.
    The October 19, 2011 episode of Brad Meltzer's Decoded examines a conspiracy theory that Mount Rushmore was actually a white supremacy monument built for Borglum's KKK contacts.

On a mountainside in South Dakota, the gifted, yet temperamental

artist and sculptor Gutzon Borglum created the massive presidential monuments of Mount Rushmore. In sculpting the carvings of

Presidents George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt, Borglum had not only to grapple with

the harsh Dakota environment but also to weather artistic and financial controversies with his sponsors in South Dakota and Congress. Borglum met the rigors of the task and forever linked his name

with the state and the Shrine to Democracy. Yet, Mount Rushmore

was by no means Borglum's first or only involvement with the

Dakotas. In 1922, he played a key role in the political contests of

North Dakota, helping to advance the agrarian reform movement

that has become a hallmark of that state.

In the early 1920s, the multifarious Borglum was living on his estate

in Stamford, Connecticut, and working on war memorials for the

Italian government, but his interests ranged beyond the confines

of the artistic world and geographical boundaries of New England.

Borglum, who considered himself an anti-establishment artist, was

frequently embroiled in artistic and political disputes. A progressive

Republican, he had formed a favorable opinion of North Dakota

farmers supporting the candidacy of Robert LaFollette at the 1916

GOP convention. In 1918, he traveled to North Dakota and established himself as an eastern fund-raiser and promoter for the North

Artist as Patron 121

Dakota Nonpartisan League. Supporting the 1922 senatorial candidacy of former Nonpartisan League governor Lynn J. Frazier, Borglum suddenly found himself in the conservative mold of the

"patron," which he had so often challenged in the artistic world.

In his History of North Dakota, Elw^n B. Robinson identified six

elements that influenced the historical development of that state:

"remoteness, dependence, economic disadvantage, agrarian radicalism, the 'Too-Much Mistake' {trying to do too much too fast with

too little), and adaptation to environment."' It was from this background that the "political prairie fire" of the Nonpartisan League

emerged to challenge the traditional Republican policies of North

Dakota and the upper Midwest. Borglum, who adhered to the progressive Theodore Roosevelt wing of the Republican party, sought

to contain this prairie fire within the party and work out some type

of accommodation between the league and the administration of

President Warren G. Harding that would result in a more reformminded GOP. Thus, serving as a financial patron for the Frazier challenge to Republican stalwart and incumbent Porter J. McCumber,

Borglum sought to infiuence the direction of the reform sparked

by the harsh realities of North Dakota's geographical location.

Borglum, however, would be no more successful in controlling

the flames of protest than many wealthy patrons of the arts had been

or would be in taming the fiery energies of the maverick sculptor.

Borglum, the artist who made sculptures out of mountains, could

not make over the Republican party of the 1920s. His many artistic

confrontations should have made him aware of the limitations of

the patron, but the sculptor seemed unprepared when Frazier, along

with other midwestern insurgents, bolted the Republican party in

1924 to support third-party presidential candidate Robert LaFollette.

The story of Borglum's 1922 attempt at political patronage begins

with the personalities of Borglum and his "client." To describe Borglum as temperamental is to understate the reality. Howard Shaff

and Audrey Karl Shaff, who have produced the best biography of

the sculptor thus far, used a quotation from Borglum's friend

Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter to best describe the artist.

For Borglum, Frankfurter said, "it was all clear, black and white, passionate, uncompromising." Remarking that Borglum was a "great

admirer" of Theodore Roosevelt, Frankfurter added: "Gutzon was

for war, for all sorts of war, six wars at a time. People weren't wrong;

they were crooked. People didn't disagree with him; they cheated

1. Elwyn B. Robinson, History of North Dakota (Lincoln: University of Nebraska

Press, 1966), p. vii.

122 South Dakota History

Cutzon Borglum, shown here working on Mount Rushmore, could sculpt mountains but

was less successful in his attempt to shape the Republican party of the 1920s.

Artist as Patron 123

him."^ The combative Borglum was born 17 March 1867 in Bear Lake,

Idaho. His father, )ames Borglum, was a Danish immigrant and doctor who moved thefamiiy a great deal, finally settling in California.

Cutzon Borglum had a troubled childhood, running away from

home on several occasions. His youthful rebellion may have been

due to the fact that his father was Mormon and had practiced polygamy until harassment by the authorities led to the separation from

the family of Borglum's natural mother, Christina, when the sculptor

was only five years old.'

Growing up in California, Borglum became interested in art and

displayed considerable talent for which he was able to find patrons

in Jessie Benton Fremont and Lisa Putnam. Although she was almost

twenty years his senior, Borglum married Putnam in 1889. The following year, Borglum and his wife moved to Europe, where he would

achieve considerable fame as an artist until, with his marriage deteriorating, he returned permanently to the United States in 1901.

Establishing a studio in New York City, Borglum proceeded to earn

a considerable reputation in his native land through such works as

the Mares of Diomedes, Sheridan Monument, Abraham Lincoln (for

the Capitol in Washington), and Seated Lincoln (for Newark, New

Jersey). The artist's private life also moved in a positive direction

with his 1909 marriage to Mary Williams Montgomery. The couple

purchased an estate, called Borgland, in Stamford, Connecticut, and

began to raise a family. While Borglum had established an international reputation for his work, he also became controversial as a

result of such issues as the sex of the angels he created for the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York and, later, the aborted

Confederate monument at Stone Mountain, Georgia.*

Ever seeking the center of the storm, the adult Borglum soon

found himself involved in politics, stating, "No individual's life is

worth the immortality he seeks unless he articulates the voice of

2. Felix Frankfurter Reminisces: Recorded in Talks with Dr. Harlan B. Phillips {New

York: Reynal, 1%0), p. 55, quoted in Howard Shaff and Audrey Karl Shaff, Six Wars

at a Time: The Life and Times of Gutzon Borglum, Sculptor of Mount Rushmore (Sioux

Falls, S.Dak.: Genter for Western Studies, Augustana College, 1985), p. 88.

3. Shaff and Shaff, Six Wars at a Time," pp. 17-19.

4. For background information on Borglum, see Shaff and Shaff, Six Wars ai a Time;

Robert |. Casey and Mary Borglum, Give the Man Room: The Story of Gutzon Borglum

(New York: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1952); Mervyn Davies, The Man Who Stood Alone

(Chester, Conn.: Pequot Press, 1974); Willadene Price, Gutzon Borglum: The Man Who

Carved a Mountain (McClean, Va.: EMP Publications, Hawthorn Books, 1974); and june

Gulp Zeitner and Lincoln Borglum, Borglum's Unfinished Dream: Mount Rushmore

(Aberdeen, S.Dak.: North Plains Press, 1976).

124 South Dakota History

his tribe."^ A close friend of Theodore Roosevelt, Borglum supported

the Rough Rider when he bolted the Republican party in 1912, forming the Progressive, or Bull Moose, party to challenge President William Howard Taft. Within two years, Borglum had second thoughts

about leaving the party because the desertion had led to the election of Democrat Woodrow Wilson. Thus, in 1914, Borglum advised

Connecticut Progressives not to run a separate slate of candidates,

and in 1916 he was on the floor of the Republican convention again

working for Roosevelt. In 1920, the progressive Borglum was ill at

ease with the normalcy of Warren G. Harding, but he stayed within

the GOP."

By now, the artist had found a new political force upon which

to bestow his enthusiasm, the Nonpartisan League of North Dakota.

The league was formed in 1916 when North Dakota farmers sought

to gain some control over the marketing of their wheat crop. The

essential problem for North Dakota farmers was the fact that no

terminal markets existed within the state. Consequently, North

Dakota agriculturalists were forced to sell to the Minneapolis grain

exchange, which was controlled by a group called the Minneapolis

Chamber of Commerce, an association of big grain traders, terminal

elevators, and commission houses. Farmers insisted that they had

numerous grievances against the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce, with the dockage system being a frequent target for complaints. Elevators docked all farmers a fixed amount of weight per

bushel for impurities, but these same impurities were later screened

out and the valuable parts sold as livestock feed, for which the farmers received nothing. Minneapolis elevators graded North Dakota

wheat low, and then sold that same wheat at a higher grade. Moreover, elevator suction fans, which removed dirt from the grain before

weighing, succeeded as well in removing some grain. Thus, the

records of the Minnesota State Railroad Commission show that one

grain elevator shipped out fifty-one thousand more bushels of grain

than it officially took in."'

5. Quoted in Casey and Borglum, Give the Man Room. p. 105.

6. Shaff and Shaff, Six Wars ai a Time, pp. 153-58,184-85, and Casey and Borglum,

Give the Man Room, pp. 109-25.

7. Robert L. Morían, Political Prairie Fire: The Nonpartisan League, 1915-1922 {Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1955), pp. 6-17; Melvin D. Hildreth, "The

Farmers Capture North Dakota," World's Work 32 (Oct. 1916): 687. The Nonpartisan

League has been the subject of considerable contemporary and scholarly debate.

For additional information on the league, see Patrick K. Coleman and Charles R. Lamb,

comps.. The Nonpartisan League, 1915-22: An Annotated Bibliography (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1985); Edward C. Blackorby, Prairie Rebel: The Public

Life of William Lemke (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1963); Larry Remele,

Artist as Patron 125

The frustration of North Dakota farmers had not been alleviated

when Progressives gained control of the state government in 1906

under Governor John Burke. The Burke administration failed to confront agricultural and financial problems, concentrating instead on

such Progressive panaceas as placing hotnest men in office and ending machine control of the government. Accordingly, in his study

of North Dakota Progressivism, Charles N. Glaab has concluded that

the conservative forces of the state, led by railroad magnate Alexander McKenzie, were able to retain economic power by conceding

to the political and social demands of Progressivism.»

Following the failure of the North Dakota Society of Equity to obtain a state-owned elevator from the 1915 session of the state legislature, Arthur C. Townley, a former socialist and disappointed flax

farmer, began to organize the Nonpartisan League. While also appealing to organized labor, league spokesmen urged farmers, who

constituted a majority of the state's population, to assert control

over their own affairs by electing farmers to state offices. The league

proposed to exert its influence through the direct primaries of the

major parties. League-endorsed candidates would run in the two

major party primaries and, if victorious in the primary, could then

count on the support of both league members and traditional party voters in the general election. In North Dakota, where Republicans outnumbered Democrats by a margin of about two to one, the

league would obviously be most active in the Republican primaries.

While many critics claimed the league was undermining the traditions of the GOP, historian Robert Morían asserted, "It was one of

the most striking attempts to use the primary to make an existing

party express the will of the majority of the party voters, however

that will might deviate from past practice, and to secure the benefits

arising from voter habit and tradition as well.""

Beginning with the elections of 1916, the league enjoyed considerable success at the polls, dominating the state legislature as well

tion. ed. Thomas W. Howard (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1981), pp. 66-92;

Remele, "The Immaculate Conception at Deering," North Dakota History 47, no. 1

(Winter 1980): 28-31; Theodore Saloulos, "The Rise of the Nonpartisan League in North

Dakota, 1915-1917," Agricultural History 20 (Jan. 19461: 43-61; Charles Edward Russell,

The Story of the Nonpartisan League: A Chapter in American Evolution (New York:

Harper & Bros., 1920); Herbert E. Gaston, The Nonpartisan League (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Howe, 1920); and Andrew A. Bruce, Non-Partisan League (New York:

MacMillan Co., 1921).

8. Charles N. Glaab, "The Failure ot North Dakota Progressivism," Mid-America

39 (Oct. 1957): 200, 205.

9. Morían, Political Prairie Fire, pp. 358-59. For more on the league's political strategy,

see ibid., pp. 31-34; Saloutos, "Rise of the Nonpartisan League," pp. 49-51; and Remele,

"Immaculate Conception at Deering," pp. 28-31.

726 South Dakota History

as the governorship in the person of Lynn J. Frazier. By 1919, the major portions of the league program for North Dakota were in place.

The core project was the creation of state-owned mills and elevators

to be managed by the Industrial Commission, consisting of the

governor, attorney general, and secretary of agriculture and labor.

A state bank was established to aid these projects and to extend

credit to farmers. The state government also engaged in the construction of homes, while other legislation of benefit to farmers included the exemption of farm improvements from taxation and the

introduction of a compulsory state hail-insurance system.'"

However, in 1921, league opponents, organized as the Independent Voters Association (IVA), forced a recall election for the Industrial

Commission. Charges of financial mismanagement were leveled

against the commission, alleging that the state had lost $1.5 million

under the league regime and that Attorney General William Lemke

had received home-construction loans exceeding state limitations.

What league critics failed to point out was that many of the state's

financial institutions had boycotted the purchase of the bonds

necessary to finance the league program. In 1921, the farmers of

North Dakota were also beginning to feel the effects of the postwar

depression in agriculture as wheat declined from a selling price of

$2.41 a bushel in 1919 to $0.85 a bushel in December 1921." The

results of the 1921 recall election, therefore, were rather ironic. The

more conservative Republican Ragnvold A. Nestos forced Frazier

out of the governor's office, but six initiated measures put forward

by league opponents to destroy the development of state enterprises

begun under the Frazier administration were all defeated at the

polls. North Dakota historian Lewis Crawford concluded: "The result

was that the people put a new set of officials in charge of the industrial program, while at the same time they continued the mandate that this industrial program should be carried out. Thus

10. Robinson, History of North Dakota, pp. 342-43; Morían, Political Prairie Fire, pp.

229-30.

11. William C. Gregg, "The Political Storm in North Dakota," Outlook 129 (12 Oct.

1921): 220-23; Oliver S. Morris, "The Vote oí the North Dakota Farmers," Nation 113

(9 Nov. 1921): 535-36; "North Dakota Wins Her Fight," Nation 113 (19 Oct. 1921): 438;

and "North Dakota's 'Recall' Puzzle," Literary Digest 71 (19 Nov. 1921): 10; Robinson,

History of North Dakota, pp. 343-50; U.S., Department of Agriculture, Yearbook, 1922

(Washington, D.C: Government Printing Office, 1923), p. 595. League opponents

formed the IVA in 1916, selling ten-dollar memberships just as the league did. With

the intent of defeating the league's program, the IVA published its own newspaper,

provided speakers and publicity, and found its chief strength in the towns and cities

of North Dakota. For more information, see D. Jerome Tweton, "The Anti-League Movement: The IVA," in North Dakota Political Tradition, ed. Howard, pp. 93-122.

Artist as Patron 127

Covernor Nestos was assigned the difficult task of administering

a program which his party had aimed to curtail."'^

The mixed results of the recall campaign and the persistence of

the agricultural depression left the Nonpartisan League spoiling for

a fight in 1922 when deposed governor Frazier sought to unseat

United States Senate incumbent Porter J. McCumber. It was this 1922

Senate campaign that captured the attention of Gutzon Borglum.

Viewing agriculture as the foundation of the American economy and

perceiving himself as a champion of the oppressed, Borglum had

campaigned and raised money for the league since its inception

in 1916. Perhaps reflecting his own ambiguities regarding the role

of artistic patrons, Borglum also shared with many league members

a distrust of eastern financial institutions.'^ In 1922, however, Borglum did not assume the pose of the outsider raving against the

injustices of the system (a stance he often occupied in the world

of art). Instead, the artist assumed the role of the patron who would

seek to influence and tame the passion of North Dakota radicalism.

Borglum's experience in bolting the Republican party in 1912 and

his more recent dealings with candidate Harding in the 1920 election governed his attitude toward the 1922 election. The artist believed that Roosevelt's third-party candidacy had been a mistake and

had weakened the cause of Progressivism within the GOP. The best

way to further the cause of reform, Borglum reasoned, would be

to purge the Republican party of reactionaries and restore it to the

principles of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. With this

strategy in mind, throughout the spring and summer of 1920 Borglum wrote to presidential candidate Warren G. Harding and Republican party national chairman Will Hays, proposing that the

national party organization give support to Nonpartisan League candidates campaigning under the banner of the GOP. By including

12. Lewis F. Crawford, History of North Dakota. 3 vols. (Chicago: American Historical

Association, 1931), 1:447.

13. Many scholars have noted that agrarian protest movements had their dark side,

in which the rhetoric against banking practices crossed ihe boundary into antiSemitism. Borglum was certainly no stranger to this side of agrarian discontent, for

he professed anti-Semitic beliefs and viewed Ihe Ku Klux Klan a.ç a legitimate voice

for agrarian interests in America. Borglum's anti-Semitism and flirtations with the

Klan are explored in Shaff and Shaff, Six Wars at a Time, pp. 103-9, 145-51. For the

connection between agrarian discontent and nativism or anti-Semitism, see Victor

C. Ferkiss, "Populist Influences on American Fascism," Western Political Quarterly

10 (June 1957): 350-73; Richard Hofstadler, The Age of Reform: From Bryan to F. D. R.

(NewYork: Alfred A. Knopf, 1955), pp. 77-81; and Dale Baum, "The New Day in North

Dakota: The Nonpartisan League and the Politics of Negative Revolution," North Dakota

History 40, no. 2 (Spring 1973): 5-18.

128 South Dakota History

the league within its ranks, the Republican party would be moved

in a more Progressive direction. Apparently, both Borglum and

William Lemke, a key advisor to Townley and chairman of the North

Dakota Republican party, thought something could come from such

negotiations.'^ Harding also believed that accommodation with the

North Dakota insurgents was worth pursuing. After speaking with

Borglum, Harding wrote Hays that Republicans should "seek the

aspirations of the Non-Partisan League groups, and the affiliated agricultural world." The Ohio senator insisted that such efforts should

be "done sincerely" and that Governor Frazier of "South Dakota"

be included in the consultations.'^ Harding had his Dakotas confused, and nothing really came from these overtures. The national

party failed to endorse league candidates, but, nevertheless, the Re14. Shaff and Shaff, Six Wars at a Time. pp. 184-86.

15. Warren C. Harding to Will Hays, 26 May 1920, Culzon Borglum Papers, Library

of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Uke Borglum, North Dakota Republican party

chair William Lemke

believed that national

GOP support for Nonpartisan League candidates could move the

party toward Progressivism.

Artist as Patron 129

publican landslide of 1920 had the ironic impact of keeping Governor Frazier and other league candidates in the Republican column.'*

Following the disappointment of the 1920 campaign, Borglum approached the election of 1922 a bit more warily. Yet he continued

to seek a role for agrarian insurgency within the party of Lincoln,

persisting in his efforts despite the fact that many traditional

Republicans agreed with former President William Howard Taft who,

before being appointed chief justice in 1921, had labeled the Nonpartisan League as "socialist, unpatriotic, anti-American, despotic,

and dishonest in Its methods."'^ Taft endorsed the IVA, the league's

North Dakota opposition, and encouraged a fusion of Democrats

and loyal Republicans to defeat league candidates and policies. In

effect, Taft denied the Nonpartisan League any position within the

GOP.'" However, Borglum the artist and the political patron was stubborn, and he sought a rejuvenated Republican party through league

involvement despite evidence that it was not going to happen.

After the death of his brother and fellow artist Solon Borglum on

30 January 1922, Borglum took little interest in politics during the

early months of the year. But by 1 March, friend and attorney Joseph

Coghlan of Bismarck was asking Borglum to become more involved

in North Dakota affairs. After expressing his condolences regarding

Solon, Coghlan updated Borglum on the political situation, insisting

that incumbent Porter J. McCumber "is bound to be defeated this

year and has no possible chance of getting back to the United States

Senate." While expressing some misgivings about Townley's proposal that the league resort to a "balance of power" voting bloc

and not endorse candidates in the primaries, Coghlan said he believed the league would run a full slate of state officers, as well as

former governor Lynn Frazier for the Senate. Coghlan concluded

by voicing his support for Borglum, asserting, "The progressive people of North Dakota certainly appreciate all you have done in the

past, and I think will always be glad to have you come out and help

in the fight."'**

In response to Coghlan, Borglum agreed that he also had reservations regarding Townley's balance of power, but he still had the

utmost respect for Townley, and, he added, "I have had some pretty

bitter fights in Washington with no less a person than the President

16. Blackorby, Prairie Rebel, pp. 113-14.

17. Quoted in James F. Vivian, " 'Not a Patriotic American Party': William Howard

Taft's Campaign against the Nonpartisan League, 1920-1921," North Dakota History

50, no. 4 (Fall 1983): 5.

18. Ibid., pp. 4-10.

19. Joseph Coghian to Borglum, 1 Mar. 1922, Borglum Papers.

730 South Dakota History

himself over my support of Mr. Townley." However, Borglum was not

quite prepared to endorse Frazier for the North Dakota Senate seat.

Instead, he once again sought to play the role of the patron who

would bring the league and Republicans together. Thus, Borglum

informed Coghlan that the league should not oppose McCumber's

reelection, "provided the Republican party recognizes the Nonpartisan League which has control of the Republican machinery of

the State of North Dakota, recognizes them as the independent

Republicans of North Dakota, supports them in the campaign and

helps them recover the State.''^"

In pursuit of this idea, on 15 March Borglum telegraphed McCumber proposing an alliance with the league. McCumber's reply was

noncommittal, stating: "As I have tried at all times to do everything

in my power, so far as national politics could benefit the farmer,

to stand steadfastly for his interest, I would naturally hope that I

might have the support in the future as I have had it in the past

of the farmer element of the State. But of course I must accept

whatever these factions see fit to do."^' Borglum, angered by

McCumber's rebuff, which apparently reminded him of Harding's

attitude in 1920, made it clear that he could no longer support the

senator. Borglum advised McCumber that he had long struggled

with stemming revolts within Republican ranks and had souglit to

reform the party by liberalizing it and helping it keep up with the

times. However, Borglum said, he now despaired of these efforts.

He believed McCumber sympathized with many of the goals sought

by the farmers of North Dakota but lacked the political courage to

openly state his views. Borglum concluded, "I regret to have to state

that I shall never again advocate the support of any party or individual that does not openly and honestly publicly declare itself

or himself to the immediate public advocacy of specific laws and

procedures."^^

Having written off McCumber, Borglum fired off a telegram to the

Nonpartisan League convention in Fargo, arguing that the league

20. Borglum to Coghlan, 11 Mar. 1922, Borglum Papers.

21. McCumber to Borglum, 16 Mar. 1922, Borglum Papers. McCumber had previously

benefited from league actions without having to take a stand. In 1916, the league

had not campaigned against McCumber because they were only contesting state

offices that year. William Lemke, a key league planner, was also state chairman of

the Republican party and supported McCumber in his capacity as chairman As a

result, many league members apparently viewed McCumber as a league-endorsed

candidate. The 1916 senatorial campaign is analyzed in Blackorby, Prairie Rebel, pp.

52-53.

22. Borglum to McCumber, 21 Mar. 1922, Borglum F^pers.

Artist as Patron 131

should reject Townley's balance of power plan and present a full

slate of candidates for the primary, or North Dakota's struggle against

corrupt politicians would go by the wayside." Borglum's desires were

met when on 25 March the convention endorsed a full ticket of candidates, including Frazier for the Senate. Townley acknowledged that

Arthur C. Townley headed the Nonpartisan

League, which championed the cause of farmers and received the

support of Borglum.

Borglum's telegram was a factor in his decision not to insist on the

balance of power plan, as he did not want "to risk being misunderstood by the progressive people of the country." He also stated that

23. Borglum lo F. W. Cathro, 20 Mar. 1922, Borglum Papers.

732 South Dakota History

he would soon be traveling to the East to confer with Borglum and

seek his aid in the upcoming campaign.^* Borglum replied in a fighting mood, asserting that he had "practically broken with Harding"

and that the 1922 campaign would be "a fight to a finish." In his

role of patron, Borglum insisted that he was willing to meet with

Townley and help raise funds for the league, but he observed, in

a somewhat condescending manner, that the league must deal with

internal matters of dissension, organization, and record keeping

before outside assistance could be of much effect.^'^

With Townley resigning his official position in the league and temporarily leaving the state, former state attorney general William

Lemke was emerging as the dominant figure in league affairs and

joined the chorus calling for Borglum's assistance. Borglum indicated that he was willing to help with fund raising and organizing

a half dozen prominent speakers for the campaign, provided the

North Dakota forces would listen to their eastern patrons and benefactors. Thus, Borglum called for a complete auditing of league

finances and insisted on a willingness to accept help and a promise

not to engage in lone-wolf tactics.^'' Borglum, who was often resentful of patrons dictating to him regarding artistic choices and financial matters, could in turn be quite demanding of those whom he

perceived as his clients.

In compliance with Borglum's suggestions, F. W. Cathro of the

league's auditing committee wrote Borglum explaining that the

league was now unified but that immediate funds were necessary

from outside donors to continue publication of the league's CourierNews. He further observed that the League Exchange held more than

$299,000 in unpaid postdated checks, multiplying the organization's

financial difficulties. With the postwar deflation, farmers could not

pay these checks, at least not until the next crop.^^ Apparently, Borglum was reassured, for he soon threw himself into fund raising

for the league in the primaries, promising his North Dakota beneficiaries seven to eight thousand dollars, but hoping to solicit twelve

thousand. In his fund-raising efforts, Borglum portrayed North

Dakota farmers as the economic backbone of the country whose

interest had suffered at the hands of manufacturing concerns both

24. A. C. Townley to Borglum, 26 Mar. 1922, Borglum Papers. Some newspapers,

such as Ihe Grand Forks Herald and Mew York Times, viewed the "balance of power"

plan as a maneuver by Townley to endorse McCumber, but historians Blackorby and

Morían have found little evidence (or this assertion.

25. Borglum to Townley, 7 Apr. 1922, Borglum Papers.

26. Borglum to William Lemke, 7 Apr. 1922, Borglum Papers.

27. F. W. Cathro to Borglum, 15 Apr. 1922, Borglum Papers.

Artist as Patron 133

during and after the war. It was time, Borglum argued, for the voice

of the agrarian West to be heard, and it was best heard if contained

within the Republican party. He sought to alleviate the fears of

wealthy donors, downplaying the radicalism of the Nonpartisan

League. "They are the Republican party in fact," he wrote to a potential patron, "and control the Republican machinery [of North

Dakota]; the powerful, virile, self-reliant and self-protective movement that should not be lost to the Republican party, hence my interest from the beginning."^"

Borglum, continuing to seek a reformed Republican party with

a strong Progressive wing, had formed the American Committee,

a fund-raising organization dedicated to restoring the Republican

party to the principles of Lincoln, which the artist believed the

policies of the Harding administration had undermined. To further

this cause, Borglum now requested that Senator William Borah of

Idaho go to North Dakota to campaign for Frazier and the league.

Borah was just the type of independent political model that Borglum

hoped to utilize in restructuring the Republicans. Borglum's rhetoric

intensified as he described the campaign to Borah. It was once again

the struggle of good versus evil for the soul of the Republican party.

Where he had once offered to make a deal with McCumber, Borglum now described the North Dakota senator as the personification of evil. He was a too! of the corrupt McKenzie machine and

a symbol of Harding's normalcy. McCumber, who had served in the

Senate since 1899, was in fact a powerful figure within the institution, serving as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and

sponsor of the Fordney-McCumber Tariff. Borglum, a combative individual who enjoyed nothing better than a good fight, informed

Borah, "I know in fighting McCumber what I'm fighting and I also

know that if we can defeat him, no single blow will complete the

present madness in tariff greed and [Attorney General Harry M.]

Daugherty insolence to so full a realization that an awakened nation is stalking them and that a full accounting must be made."^^

As Borglum's rhetoric and activities became more strident, so did

the campaign in North Dakota. McCumber realized that his national

reputation would count for little with the disgruntled farmers of

the state. Therefore, in his opening statement of the campaign,

McCumber sought to portray himself as an advocate of the farmers'

cause in Washington. He stated that he supported reduced railroad

28. Borglum to Edgar B. Davis, 20 May 1922, Borglum Papers.

29. Borglum to William Borah, 9 lune 1922, Borglum Papers. For information on

the American Committee, see the flyers on it in the Borglum Papers.

134 South Dakota History

freight rates on agricultural products, reduced interest rates on farm

credits, a comprehensive system of cooperative marketing, and the

establishment of a protective tariff for agriculture as well as industry.^" Such prominent Republicans associated with agriculture as

farm-bloc senator Arthur Capper of Kansas lauded McCumber as

"one of the strongest and most influential representatives of the

farmer in Congress."" McCumber attempted to identify himself with

the farm bloc, which claimed credit for a number of measures enacted in the 1921-1922 congressional sessions, including the CapperVolstead Act to aid cooperative marketing, the Grain Futures Bill to

prevent speculation in grain futures, an amendment to include a

representative for agriculture on the Federal Reserve Board, increased protection for agriculture in the Fordney-McCumber Tariff,

the Packers and Stockyards Act to provide regulation under the Department of Agriculture, and an amendment to the War Finance Corporation Act to establish additional agricultural credits