Gutzon Borglum's Concept of the Hall of Records, Mount Rushmore: Special History Study

Thompson, Enid

One aspect of the design and construction of the memorial that Dr. Fite mentioned but did not explore in depth in his history of Mount Rushmore is the Hall of Records. This hall, or archives, with the Grand Stairway leading to it was one of Gutzon Borglum's dreams. He designed and started work on it contrary to both memorial commission instructions and Park Service policy. This study of the Hall of Records at Mount Rushmore National Memorial was commissioned to provide a documented and detailed history of Gutzon Borglum's proposed "Hall of Records" at Mount Rushmore, based upon information gathered from documents found at Mount Rushmore, Rapid City and vicinity, Washington D. C., Kansas City, and Denver. Material in Gilbert Fite's book Mount Rushmore will be the "point of departure" for this study. In carrying out this commission it was discovered that the records previously located at the memorial and in the Federal Records Center at Kansas City had all been sent to the Library of Congress in Washington, D. C., and that SOme of the papers of the Second Mount Rushmore Commission along with the papers of the Mount Rushmore National. Memorial Society, fo'rmerly in the possession of Hoadley Dean of Rapid City, have been deposited at the Black Hills State College'in Spearfish, South Dakota. Following close and intense study of Filbert Fite's book, all of these papers were traced and examined, and interviews were arranged with persons knowledgeable about the history of Mount Rushmore. Fite's papers are included in the collection at Spearfish. Within the 238-page text of Fite's definitive history of Mount Rushmore there are only seven references to the Hall of Records. One of these, the description he gives of the hall, is reported verbatim in the present study, and all others are mentioned. On the other hand, the general history of the memorial delineated in the book is mentioned in this study only as it pertains to the history of the Hall of Records. An earlier Borglum mountain-carving project at Stone Mountain, Georgia, is mentioned because it illuminates Gutzon Borglum's concept of a memorial hall as an integral part of mountain carving as early as 1920. The history of the Hall of Records is presented chronologically, in the development of the memorial, and almost every document in which the hall is mentioned is quoted verbatim. Borglum's dream'of the memorial was a growing, changing concept, and the changes are presented here in Borglum's words, showing his alterations, inconsistencies, evasions, and persistence. Borglum brought the dream of a memorial hall to Mount Rushmore from Stone Mountain and expanded and embellished it. Russel Arundel commented in an interview that the original plans for the Hall of Records were very simple, but that Gutzon

Gutzon Borglum's Concept of the Hall of Records, Mount Rushmore: Special History Study

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