Letter: Finally, recognition for a Rushmore artist
Teddy Roosevelt (second from the right on Mount Rushmore) is a national hero and happens to be the only president of the United States born in Manhattan. Credit: AFP / Getty Images / Karen Bleier
Your article about the 75th anniversary of Mount Rushmore, written by The Associated Press, had a glaring omission [“Sculptor’s Fab 4 is turning 75,” News, Sept. 19].
Although sculptor Gutzon Borglum was the designer and sculptor of the figures at Mount Rushmore, it was the Italian-born Luigi Del Bianco of Port Chester, New York, whom Borglum hired and called his chief carver responsible for the “refinement of expression.” In other words, as one views the monument, one actually sees the work of Del Bianco.
For the last few years, Luigi’s grandson Louis Del Bianco, his family, author Douglas Gladstone, and the New York State Commission for Social Justice of the Order Sons of Italy in America have exhorted the National Park Service to officially recognize Del Bianco’s contribution. It’s a designation he truly deserves, especially because Borglum wrote that Del Bianco “does the work of three men.”
So it’s fitting that the park service will soon unveil a plaque officially recognizing Del Bianco as chief carver.
Louis J. Gallo Jr., Miller Place
Editor’s note: The writer is state chairman of the Commission for Social Justice of the Order Sons of Italy in America.
