THE FIRST MOUNT RUSHMORE
© Alamy
Before the faces of America’s pioneering presidents were carved into the side of Mount Rushmore, sculptor Gutzon Borglum created this plaster model. Borglum oversaw the translation of his plaster model to carved stone from 1927 until he died in 1941. With more time needed to complete the national memorial, his son Lincoln Borglum took over. Each of the presidents symbolises a different era in US history. George Washington represents the birth of the nation, Thomas Jefferson its expansion, Theodore Roosevelt its development and Abraham Lincoln its preservation following the country’s civil war.