TLS as president, two pages, 8 x 10.5, White House letterhead, July 24, 1940. Letter to Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor of Mount Rushmore, concerning the monument's creation and funding, in full: "I have received your letter of July 13 concerning the Mount Rushmore National Memorial and requesting additional funds for the Great Hall. Specific authorizations and appropriations have been made for the Memorial in sums totaling $750,000. The last appropriation in the amount of $175,000 was included in the Independent Offices Appropriation Act approved March 16, 1939. I have reviewed your testimony before the House Sub-committee on Appropriations on January 17, 1939, in connection with the $175,000 appropriation and am enclosing a copy of that part referring to the completion of the project. The members of the Sub-committee endeavored to develop information as to the amount of funds and period of time necessary to finish the work and your testimony indicated that additional federal funds would not be requested.
The congress inserted language in that appropriation item specifying: 'for the completion of the work, except the inscription ***' since you stated, as noted in the attached excerpt from the hearings, that there would be no objection to that proposal. You are familiar with the objections of certain members of Congress to the project and the difficulty in obtaining appropriations in the past. I am certain, therefore, that any effort to authorize work not previously provided for would not be considered favorably in view of your definite statements before the Appropriations Committee last year that additional funds would not be requested.
On May 15 the Secretary of the Interior submitted an estimate in the amount of $350,000 for administration, protection, maintenance, and improvement of the Memorial to provide for items necessary in the development and administration of the area. That estimate was considered by the Bureau of the Budget with other material submitted by the Commission and the sum of $86,000 was recommended to the Congress on June 19 to provide $60,000 to complete work on the figures, $11,000 for administrative expenses of the Commission, and $15,000 for your honorarium. The Congress has not yet included the item in an appropriation bill.
In the circumstances, it would not be advisable to submit to the Congress a proposal for new work on the Memorial not covered by specific authorizations to date. However, if the Commission desires to recommend a development program to provide for any essentials it considers necessary for the project, the proposal will be considered for any legislative action possible which would not be in conflict with the financial program for the existing emergency." In fine condition, with a light diagonal crease to the second page.
To supplement the massive presidential busts of Mount Rushmore, Borglum sought to create a large inscription or entablature to be carved alongside the figures. The tablet, slated to be about 80 by 120 feet and in the shape of the Louisiana Purchase, would describe the nine most important events in the history of the United States from 1776 to 1906. When the proposal fell through, Borglum next planned to create a large room within the mountain, a great hall. This chamber, which was to be drilled into the north wall of the small canyon behind the faces, would hold the documents and artifacts most central to American democratic history. Construction of the hall took place between July 1938 and July 1939, when a 70-foot tunnel was blasted into the mountain, but work was halted in 1939 when Congress insisted that construction should solely focus on the completion of the faces. When Borglum died in March 1941, his son carried on with the project until funds finally exhausted in late October. Some 56 years later, on August 9, 1998, Borglum’s great hall was completed when a repository of records was placed in the floor of the hall entry.
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