Dear readers,
Mt. Rushmore’s national Memorial in South Dakota, the granite cliff where the faces of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt are carved, has a major but little known Italian connection, sculptor Luigi del Bianco.
Luigi Del Bianco was the chief carver of Mt. Rushmore from 1927 to 1941, working directly under G. Borglum, sculptor project director. Luigi labored at this monumental task for more than 14 years. The memorial is spectacular in the morning light and at night, when special lighting ceremonies dramatically illuminate the evening.
I visited Mt. Rushmore many years ago and, unaware of any Italian connection, did not take note of Lincoln’s face or eyes which were expertly carved by Luigi Del Bianco in 1936. Future Italian American visitors to Mt. Rushmore will now be aware of the Italian connection thanks to the efforts of his grandson lou del Bianco who has created a superb website, www.LuigiMountRushmore.com and contacted Italian American organizations to raise awareness about his grandfather’s work.
From Ken Borelli’s, president of the Italian American Heritage Foundation (425 N. Fourth Street, San Jose, CA 95112, 408/293-7154), recent newsletter:
“We recently were contacted by Lou Del Bianco, who shared with us his website about his grandfather, Luigi Del Bianco, who was the chief carver of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. The family developed the website to get the word out about Luigi, and the important role he played in the creation of the memorial.
I once visited Mt. Rushmore, and never recalled seeing any reference to this Italian artist and carver. Believe me, I would have remembered had I seen something like that. You can check out the site yourself at www.LuigiMountRushmore. com
Part of our role as a heritage foundation is to nurture those roots, both Italian and Italian American, less they soon be for- gotten, and what would remain would be a very skewed image of who we are and were, and our role in the development of this wonderful valley and great nation.”
For the benefit of readers who are not computer handy, here are a few highlights from the Del Bianco’s site, which include information on Luigi, Mount Rushmore, audio-video interviews, photos and articles: In the midst of the Great Depression, a Port Chester, N.Y. man moved his life to South Dakota to help blast, cut and carve the faces of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt into a mountain in the Black Hills.
In 1936 he gave Lincoln his eyes. He worked on a scaffold 500 feet off the ground. He managed and trained unskilled and inexperienced workers. He quit a few times because of low pay and, possibly, discrimination, but was considered irrepla- ceable, and returned again and again. His name was Luigi Del Bianco.
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Luigi Del Bianco was born aboard a ship on May 8, 1892. His parents, Vincenzo and Osvalda, returning from the United States to Italy. When he was a small boy hanging around the wood carving shop of his father in Meduno, Pordenone province, Vincenzo Del Bianco became convinced that his son was interested in carving and had ability. He took the 11 year old boy to Austria to study under a skilled stone carver.
After 2 years in Vienna, Luigi studied in Venice. When cou- sins in Barre, Vermont wrote that skilled carvers were needed, 17 year old Luigi boarded a ship out of Naples and headed for America. In 1914 World War I broke out and Luigi returned to Italy to fight for his country. He emigrated back to Barre, VT in 1920 and after a year work as a stone cutter, he settled in Port Chester, NY where he met his wife Nicoletta Cardarelli.
His brother-in-law, Alfonso Scafa, also a stone cutter, introduced Luigi to Mount Rushmore designer Gutzon Burglum. “Bianco,” as Borglum affectionately called him, began working at Borglum Stamford studio and the association of the two men continued until Borglum’s death in 1941.
In 1933, Borglum hired Bianco to be chief stone carver on the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. Luigi’s job was to carve the “refinements of expression” or details in the faces. It was “Bianco” who carved the life-like eyes of Lincoln; and it was “Bianco” who singlehan- dedly saved the face of Jefferson.
“Luigi Del Bianco”, the best stone carver Rushmore ever had, patched the crack in Jesfferson’s lip with a foot deep piece of granite held in place by pins - the only patch on the whole sculpture, and one that is hard to detect even at close up. In 1935, Luigi brought his wife and 3 sons, Silvio, Vincent and Caesar to live in Keystone, South Dakota. The boys went to school, rode horses, became blood brothers to the Sioux and swam in the nearby streams.
By 1941, funding for the memorial had run out. The breakout of World War II also slammed the lid on any future carving. Luigi returned to Port Chester, N.Y. and his stone cutting shop where he carved over 500 tombstones out of rough Vermont marble, and did special carving for contractors in the area.
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A decade after Luigi Del Bianco died (1982-1969), his son Caesar took several trips to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. to do research on his father. His studies turned up many letters that Borglum wrote during his time on Mt. Rushmore project.
He expressed relief that Bianco had returned to Mt. Rushmore after resigning due to low wages and anti-Italian sentiments on the part of management and co-workers. “He (Del Bianco), Borglum wrote, is worth any three men I could find in America for this type of work, but Mt. Rushmore is not managed that way. He entirely outclassed everyone on the hill, and his knowledge was an embarrassment to the amateur efforts and lack of knowledge, lack of experience and lack of judgment. His absence is a great loss to the work this year.”
Borglum’s letters also reflect relief when Del Bianco returned. “Bianco, as you know, is back, and his presence emphasizes the frightful hardship this work labors under. He is the only intelligent, efficient stone carver on the work who understands the language of the sculptor.”
In July of 1935, Del Bianco left, in part because his salary was too low, 90 cents an hour. At the time, Borglum wrote, “His leaving will stop all work on the features of Washington and Jefferson.” Del Bianco soon returned when he was offered an additional 60 cents an hour. Besides the financial struggle, Caesar said that many people in South Dakota gave his father a hard time about his ethnicity. “I really think they did not like him because he was Italian.”
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The four presidents depicted on Mount Rushmore were chosen because Washington led the 13 colonies to independence and because he was the first president; Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence and doubled the size of the U.S. through the Louisiana purchase; Roosevelt expanded international commerce with the completion of the Panama Canal and helped create our first national park.
Lincoln kept the Union together and freed the slaves. It took 14 years, from 1927 to 1941, to carve Mount Rushmore because the size and dimensions of the faces are gigantic. From top of head to end of chin, 60 ft; nose, 20 ft.; mouth, 18 feet wide; each eye, 11 ft. wide. The height of Mt. Rushmore is 590 ft. It was Doane Robinson, South Dakota state historian, who had the original idea for Mt. Rushmore, but it was designed by Gutzon Borglum (1867-1941).
Borglum was an American artist and sculptor famous for creating, in addition to the monumental presidents’ head at Mt. Rushmore, the famous carving on Stone Mountain near Atlanta and other public works of art. Borglum and Luigi Del Bianco had worked together for more than 20 years, until Borglum’s death in 1941. In an interview in 1966, Luigi Del Bianco had this to say about Borglum: “It was a sad, sad day when the master died... The world has lost a grean man!”
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