Two items: a DS, four pages, 8.5 x 11, September 26, 1934, regarding an agreement between "Gutzon Borglum of Mouth Rushmore, South Dakota" and "H. C. Farnham and Floyd Mellen of Omaha, Nebraska," in which the latter party "shall have the exclusive right to sell to the retail trade facsimiles of the heads of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, being the four portraits now being carved on Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and reproduced as book ends, full portraits and fragments, anywhere within the United States and Canada," signed at the conclusion in black ink by Borglum, and countersigned by several others, including his son, "Lincoln Borglum," as a witness; and a TLS signed thrice by Borglum, one page, 8.5 x 11, Mount Rushmore National Memorial Commission letterhead, October 3, 1934, addressed to Mr. Farnham in relation to the included document, which Borglum wishes to amend, in part: "Paragraph 9 shall state, it is agreed that this contract shall extend for the period of one year from the time of this date, with the privilege thereof for one additional year by the parties of the second part provided 50,000…casts have been sold…and, Paragraph 13…shall read thus: It is agreed that the parties of the second part shall, within ten (10) days after the receipt of any consignment of said figures by them in any part of the United States or Canada, pay to the party of the first part therefor as follows: for the small heads or fragments the sum of thirty-five (35) cents each, the full busts shall be thirty-five (35) cents each, and for the book-ends one dollar ($1.00) per set of fifty (50) cents each." Borglum adds "for you" to the final line, with both H. C. Farnham and Floyd Mellen signing their names to the approved changes. In overall fine condition.
Borglum and his team of 400 workers were roughly half-way through the construction of the Mount Rushmore National Monument in early fall of 1934, with Washington’s face completed and dedicated some three months earlier. Although both the public and press were eager for completion, frequent delays due to weather and lack of funds are estimated to have allotted 8.5 years worth of waiting, with the other six years dedicated to actual sculpting. The merchandizing of Mount Rushmore would have served as a valuable source of revenue for a project that cost $989,992.32.
