Q. David Bowers
In 1910 Borglum created the membership medal for the American Numismatic Society, an organization of which he was a member for a number of years. In 1912 he worked in Theodore Roosevelt's presidential campaign and was the local chairman for the Bull Moose Party. In 1917 and 1918 he wangled an appointment as an investigator of the aircraft industry and for a time had an office in Washington in the War Department, where an assistant to the Secretary of War described him as "an uninhibited and unmitigated nuisance." In 1923 his essay in the Edward W. Bok Peace Plan contest was one of 12 published from 22,000 submitted. After the execution of political radicals Nicola Sacco and Bartolmeo Vanzetti in 1927, Borglum created a bronze plaque in their memory, which he offered to the State of Massachusetts, which refused to accept it.
In the United States Borglum's works are located in many cities. Particularly notable are Mares of Diomedes (a bronze group in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) and the Trail Drivers Memorial (San Antonio, Texas). Gutzon Borglum began the carving of the Confederate Memorial at Stone Mountain, Georgia in 1923 but was fired in a heated dispute in February 1925, after which the work was revised and continued by Augustus Lukeman. Borglum is best known for his monumental sculptures of four presidents at Mount Rushmore, South Dakota. In 1928 Borglum was employed to develop the municipal waterfront area of Corpus Christi, Texas. As part of his studies for the project, he and several associates went to Coral Gables, Florida to inspect the architectural and other civic improvements in that newly built development.
In Stamford, Connecticut beginning in 1910, Gutzon Borglum worked in a tile-roofed studio with large glass skylights, housed in a building made of cut stone with rough exterior surfaces, in an attractive 400-acre wooded setting as part of a complex he named Borgland. From this studio he supervised work being done at distant places including in a studio maintained in New York City. In the 1920s he had a studio in San Antonio, Texas (in connection with the Trail Drivers Memorial) and beginning in 1928 at Mt. Rushmore.
Hot-tempered and outspoken, Borglum's life was characterized by misunderstandings, arguments, and conflicts, most of which were accompanied by suitable newspaper coverage. Many years later at the age of 71 he made the comment, "My life has been a one-man war," an assessment with which few who knew him would disagree. A commentary in the New York Sun, March 25, 1938, noted: "He was a two-fisted, sometimes hot-tempered idealist; those who knew him best, however, liked him for his breezy impetuosity and found him an extraordinarily engaging individual. Right or wrong, he was always full of life and intellectual fervor."
On May 19, 1909, Gutzon Borglum married his secretary, Mary Williams Mont-gomery, in a ceremony in Short Beach, Connecticut. Mrs. Borglum, a graduate of Wellesley College who held a doctorate from the University of Berlin, became well known as a scholar and Assyriologist. Her father had been a missionary in Turkey and Syria. The couple had two children, James Lincoln de la Mothe Borglum (April 9, 1912; known as Lincoln Borglum; he worked on the Mount Rushmore Memorial) and Mary Ellis Borglum (born March 25, 1916; who married David Vhay; still later she was known as Mary Ellis Powers. Gutzon's brother, Solon H(annibal) Borglum, was a sculptor of international repute and at one time was better known than Gutzon. Gutzon Borglum's death oc-curred in Henrotin Hospital, Chicago, where he had been since February 13th, on March 6, 1941. His wife, son, and daughter were at his bedside. Interment was at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California.
Commemorative credits: 1925 Stone Mountain Memorial half dollar; his Mount Rushmore sculptures were used as elements of the motifs on the 1991 Mount Rushmore half dollar, silver dollar, and $5.
BROWNELL, Charles DeWolf
Born in Providence, Rhode Island on February 6, 1822, the son of Dr. Pardon and Lucia (DeWolf) Brownell, Charles DeWolf Brownell was one of four brothers in the family. In 1824 the Brownells moved to East Hartford, Connecticut, where Charles was to live for several decades thereafter. After studying law, he became a practicing attorney in Hartford in 1843, a profession which he continued until 1853, abandoning it because of his aversity to the corruption he observed among his colleagues. By this time he had turned his interest to other fields including art, writing, and astronomy. In 1854 Trinity College awarded him an honorary Master of Arts degree for his book, The Indian Races of North and South America.
Brownell decided to specialize in landscape painting and was selling pictures commercially by 1854. He studied art in Hartford under Julius (or Jules) Busch and Joseph Ropes and opened a studio at 391 Main Street in that city. From 1854 to 1861 he went to Cuba each winter to paint tropical scenes. In November 1860 he moved from Connecticut to New York City and opened a studio at 658 Broadway. While there he produced many paintings, probably mostly of a commercial nature, for little notice was taken of them in academic circles, despite his friendship with Frederic Church and other accomplished artists of the day. In 1865 he moved to Bristol, Rhode Island and married Henrietta Knowlton Angell Pierce of that city. The union produced four sons: Carl DeWolf (1866), Ernest Henry (1867), Edward Ibarra (1870), and Roger Williams (1876).
In 1870 he took his family to Europe, where they traveled through Italy, France, Germany, England, and other countries, returning to the United States in 1877. During the next two decades the artist traveled widely throughout North America, while his wife remained in Bristol. Henrietta died in 1897, after which Charles DeWolf Brownell visited Japan, Algiers, and other areas. In November 1908 he broke his hip, after which he was confined to bed until his passing on June 6, 1909.
His best-known painting was of Connecticut's Charter Oak, a subject of which he did several versions. In 1991 Kennedy Galleries, of New York City, issued a catalogue featuring his work.
Commemorative credit: Henry G. Kreis adapted the obverse design of the 1935 Connecticut Tercentenary half dollar from an 1855 painting of the Charter Oak by Brownell.
In 1870 he took his family to Europe, where they traveled through Italy, France, Germany, England, and other countries, returning to the United States in 1877. During the next two decades the artist traveled widely throughout North America, while his wife remained in Bristol. Henrietta died in 1897, after which Charles DeWolf Brownell visited Japan, Algiers, and other areas. In November 1908 he broke his hip, after which he was confined to bed until his passing on June 6, 1909.
His best-known painting was of Connecticut's Charter Oak, a subject of which he did several versions. In 1991 Kennedy Galleries, of New York City, issued a catalogue featuring his work.
Commemorative credit: Henry G. Kreis adapted the obverse design of the 1935 Connecticut Tercentenary half dollar from an 1855 painting of the Charter Oak by Brownell.
BURR, Edward Everett
Born in Lebanon, Ohio on January 18, 1895, Edward Everett Burr studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and was a pupil of Leopold Seyffert and Albin Polasek. At times during the 1930s he maintained studios in Little Rock, Arkansas and in Urbana, Illinois. He received prizes from the Society for Sanity in Art (a Chicago group in which he maintained an active interest) and in 1933 from the Art Institute of Chicago. His works were exhibited at the Society for Sanity in Art (1938, 1941), the Art Institute of Chicago (1926, 1927, 1931), and the Illinois Academy of Fine Arts (1927). Edward Everett Burr was particularly well known in the Chicago area.
Commemorative credits: 1935-1939 Arkansas Centennial half dollar (prepared designs that were modeled by Emily Bates), 1936 Robinson-Arkansas half dollar (reverse, or eagle side).