Luigi Del Bianco, an Italian Immigrant, played an important part in bringing to life a great American monument. For reasons unknown, many authors on the subject of Rushmore have chosen not to mention Luigi and his many contributions to the work. 

"He is worth any three men I could find in America, for this particular type of work" - Gutzon Borglum, Designer of Mount Rushmore.
"Bianco was one of the most competent men ever to work on the mountain..." - Gilbert Fite, from his book Mount Rushmore.
"Leaving my father out of Rushmore is like talking about the Yankees and leaving out Joe DiMaggio" - Caesar Del Bianco

Luigi Del Bianco was born aboard a ship near La Havre, France on May 8, 1892. His parents, Vincenzo and Osvalda, were returning from the United States to  Italy. When he was a small boy hanging around the wood carving shop of his father in Meduno, Pordenone province, men of the village used to say, "How curious the little one is!" Vincenzo Del Bianco became convinced that his son was interested in carving and had more than ordinary ability. He took the 11 year old boy to  Austria to study under a skilled stone carver. After 2 years in Vienna, Luigi studied in Venice. When cousins in Barre, Vermont wrote that skilled carvers were  needed, 17 year old Luigi boarded the La Touraine out of Naples and headed for America.

In 1913 World War I broke out and Luigi returned to Italy to fight for his country. After the war, He emigrated back to Barre, VT. in 1920 and after a year of work as a stone cutter, he settled in Port Chester, NY where he met his wife, Nicoletta Cardarelli. 

It was his brother-in-law, Alfonso Scafa, who introduced Luigi to Mount Rushmore designer Gutzon Borglum. “Bianco”, as Borglum affectionately called him, began working at Borglum?s Stamford studio and the association of the two men continued until Borglum?s death in 1941. 

Throughout the 1920?s Luigi assisted Borglum with the Governor Hancock Memorial in South Carolina, Stone Mountain in Georgia, and the Wars of America 
Memorial in Newark, N.J. Because of Luigi?s strong stature and classic Roman features, Borglum used him as a model on 20 of the figures on the Newark 
sculpture. 

In 1933, Borglum hired Bianco to be chief stone carver on the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. Luigi?s job was to carve the “refinement of expression” or 
detail in the faces. He was paid 1.50 an hour; a considerable sum for the Depression.

It was “Bianco” who carved the life-like eyes Lincoln. In a 1966 Interview with the Herald Statesman in Yonkers, NY, he said about carving the eyes, “I could only 
see from this far what I was doing, but the eye of Lincoln had to look just right from many miles distant.” “I know every line and ridge, each small bump and all 
the details of that head (Lincoln?s) so well.” 

It was “Bianco” who also singlehandedly saved the face of Jefferson; a task Gutzon Borglum would have entrusted to no one else. In Judith St. George?s book, 
The Mount Rushmore Story, she writes:

“Luigi Del Bianco, one of the best stone carvers Rushmore ever had, patched the crack in Jefferson?s lip with a foot deep piece of granite held in place by pins- the only patch on the whole sculpture, and one that is hard to detect even close up.”

St George goes on to reinforce the value of “Bianco”: “At least he ( Borglum) now had the funds to hire skilled carvers, a lack he had been bemoaning for years. But to his surprise, with the exception of Luigi Del  Bianco, few of the carvers worked out.”

In 1935 Luigi brought his wife and 3 sons, Silvio, Vincent and Caesar to live in Keystone.
The boys went to school, rode horses, became blood brothers to the Sioux and swam naked in the nearby streams. 

By 1941, funding for the memorial had run out. The breakout of WWII also slammed the lid on any further carving. Luigi returned to Port Chester and his stone 
cutting shop where he carved approximately 500 tombstones out of rough Vermont marble.

Luigi never forgot his roots. He made many a pilgrimage back to Meduno to visit relatives and old friends. Meduno takes great pride in their native son and has 
included in their local museum many photos and memorabilia of Luigi Del Bianco and his time at Mount Rushmore.

The citizens of Port Chester, NY also remember Luigi well, as the dapper gentlemen with the fedora on his head and the gleam in his eye, who loved to walk the 
Italian section of Washington Park and share stories of his adventures on the mountain. 

“I would do it again, even knowing all the hardships involved”, Luigi stated in a 1966 interview with the Herald Statesman “I would work at Mount Rushmore even 
without pay, if necessary. It was a great privilege granted me”. 

 WEB SITE : http://www.luigimountrushmore.com
 
 

The ANNOTICO Reports Can be Viewed (With Archives) on:
[Formerly Italy at St Louis]