Carving Mount Rushmore: The Faces and the Unfinished Plan

A roadside sign directs visitors toward the studio and a better view of the unfinished carving. Washington dominates the face of the mountain; an abandoned attempt at Jefferson is visible to his left. The photograph belongs to the construction period, though this scan was made from a 1976 National Park Service print.

This photograph of Borglum’s model shows a more expansive design than the mountain ultimately received. Shoulders, torsos and drapery continue below the four heads. The Library of Congress dates the photograph to about 1936 and records no known publication restrictions, with no copyright renewal found for the Rise Studio image.

Workers stand on and beside the unfinished nose of Abraham Lincoln. Their figures reveal how much labor disappeared when the sculpture was viewed from the valley. The source identifies a National Park Service photograph printed in 1976; the scene itself belongs to the carving years, before the work ended in October 1941.

Inside the sculptor’s workshop, the model and the mountain can be seen together through the broad window. The comparison preserves the distance between the proposed bodies and the carved heads. This is an undated contextual view, known to predate its 1976 print, rather than a photograph of the last day of work.