He carved history
ThisColumbus Day, remember the name and face of Luigi Del Bianco, an Italian immigrant who was the chief carver of Mount Rushmore.
The main sculptor was the celebrated Gutzon Borglum, but according to author Douglas Gladstone’s new book, “Carving a Niche for Himself: The Untold Story of Luigi Del Bianco and Mount Rushmore,” the main man on the scaffold sandblasting the granite faces of the four iconic American Presidents from 1933 to 1940 was an artisan stone carver from Meduno, Italy. Del Bianco, who arrived in America in 1907, would leave one of the most indelible marks an immigrant ever left on his new home.
“I got the idea for this book listening to an NPR interview with a man claiming to be the last surviving worker of Mount Rushmore,” Gladstone says. “He claimed Luigi Del Bianco was not the main carver or even a good stone carver. The old man’s comments disturbed me because he was responding to De Bianco’s son Caesar and grandson Lou’s quest to get Del Bianco more recognition for his contribution to Mount Rushmore. So I started to do some research.”
Gladstone wound up doing three magazine pieces on Del Bianco, who had a studio in Port Chester, Westchester County, and had also been the chief carver for Borglum’s Wars of America monument in Newark.
“I fell in love with Mount Rushmore as a kid when I first saw it in one of those old View-Masters,” Gladstone says. “One of my favorite movies is Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘North by Northwest,’ with the great chase scenes across the faces of Mount Rushmore at the end. So I in no way with this book attempt to diminish the brilliant concept and design of Mount Rushmore from the great Borglum. But not recognizing Del Bianco’s contribution as the chief carver of Mount Rushmore is like not acknowledging Joe DiMaggio’s contribution to the 1936 Yankees.”
Gladstone says Del Bianco was to Borglum what the great cinematographer Gordon Willis was to Francis Ford Coppola and Woody Allen.
“Coppola and Allen directed ‘The Godfather’ and ‘Annie Hall,’ ” says Gladstone. “But Willis gave it that special look as the main cameraman. In Hollywood, they give Oscars for best director and best cinematographer. But the National Park Service only gives credit to Borglum. Everyone else, including Del Bianco, is considered ‘workers.’ But comparing Del Bianco’s skilled craftsmanship to an elevator lift operator and a guy hoisting a scaffold, or the other 400 other laborers earning 15 cents an hour, is just not fair.”
Del Bianco apprenticed under master stone carvers in Venice and Austria and was a member of the National Sculpture Society.
“Mount Rushmore’s first chief carver was Hugo Villa, who originally carved Jefferson’s face to the right of George Washington’s,” says Gladstone. “People asked if it was Martha Washington. So Villa was fired, and Borglum hired De Bianco, who’d carved the America’s wars monument for him. And Jefferson wound up on Washington’s left.”
As for the claim by the laborer on NPR that Del Bianco was not the chief carver, Gladstone has written proof in the form of a July, 30, 1935, letter from Borglum to John Boland, head of the Mount Rushmore Commission, which says, “I’ve appointed Luigi Del Bianco for this task.”
“The National Park Service knows of this and other documents proving Del Bianco was the chief carver, but still refuses to acknowledge Del Bianco’s enormous contribution to Mount Rushmore,” says Gladstone. “They can refuse to sell my book in their bookstore, but they can’t refuse to acknowledge that Del Bianco was the chief carver when Borglum himself calls him that.”
Maureen McGee Ballinger, director of interpretation and education for Mount Rushmore, isn’t convinced convinced.
“We do recognize Mr. Del Bianco in the museum with photos, as a carver. But not as the chief carver. Our documentation only shows Del Bianco working on Mount Rushmore sporadically, for a total of 16 months,” she says. “He was not here at the beginning or the end. I have seen the letter where Borglum refers to Del Bianco as chief carver. But I consider Gutzon Borglum the chief carver.”
Chief carver or not, relatives say Del Bianco gave his life to his craft.
“Luigi Del Bianco lived and breathed stone carving,” says Gladstone. “Working on Mount Rushmore without a mask, which was his own choice, helped end his life. His granddaughter said when he died his lungs were literally like granite.”