Gutzon Borglum photographs and other material, 1901-1920

Descriptive Summary

Repository
American Numismatic Society
Extent
0.2 cubic feet (1 box)
Language
English
Abstract
Signed photographs and other items from Gutzon Borglum.

Gutzon Borglum working on the statue of General Philip Sheridan for Sheridan Circle, Washington, D.C., ca. 1908


Administrative Information

Access

Collection open to all researchers.

Preferred Citation

Gutzon Borglum photographs and other material, 1901-1920, Archives, American Numismatic Society

Restrictions

Copyright restrictions may apply. Permission to publish or reproduce must be secured from the American Numismatic Society.

Biographical Note

Sculptor John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum (1867-1941) designed the American Numismatic Society’s Membership Medal in 1910. Born near Bear Lake, Idaho, to Danish parents, he lived in Utah, Nebraska, Kansas, and California as a youth. As an adult he opened a small studio and earned some commissions, eventually traveling to Paris where he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and formed friendships with such notable artists as the sculptor Auguste Rodin. Having returned in 1901 to work in the United States, he continued to find success. His Mares of Diomedes, for example, was the first sculpture by an American to be purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and his marble bust of Abraham Lincoln has been on display at the U.S. Capitol since 1911. His most famous work is no doubt the four U.S. presidents carved into Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Scope and Content

Contains a halftone reproduction of a sketched portrait signed in ink by Borglum, with the words “To you Archer M. Huntington”; a copy of The Delineator (v.95 n.6, December 1919) with the article “Paderewski’s Renunciation,” featuring one of Borglum’s drawings, signed in ink; five signed photographs of his statue of General Philip Sheridan for Sheridan Circle, Washington, D.C., two of which show work being done in the studio and another showing Borglum with the horse piece (noted as “single casting”), inscribed to Huntington; four signed photographs of unidentified busts, one with the year 1920 and one with 1919; a signed photograph of what is labeled on the reverse as “I Piped for You and You Would not Dance,” which shows a split where a reclining male figure has been cut from the standing female figure, copyright 1905; a halftone reproduction of a sketched portrait of August Rodin by Borglum dated July 3, 1901, and a letter from Rodin to an artist (illegible) regarding a meeting in Paris to discuss having a portrait made, both mounted together in a matte where they had at one time been displayed in a frame.

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