Luigi Del Bianco home country, eventually returning to Vermont in 1920. Bianco's brother-in-law introduced him to Mount Rushmore designer Gutzon Borglum, and Bianco began working at Borglum's studio. In 1933, Borglum hired Bianco as chief stone carver on the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. Paid $1.50 an hour, Bianco was charged with carving the detail in the faces. He carved Lincoln's eyes, and patched a crack in Jefferson's lip, saving the sculpture. Luigi Del Bianco Luigi Del Bianco (May 8, 1892 - January 20, 1969) was a French-born Italian-American sculptor, and chief carver of Mount Rushmore. Bianco was born on a ship near La
Joan W. Patten Joan W. Patten Joan Wholey Patten (1924–2005) was an American sculptor and scholar of Mayan art. Patten was born in New York City on June 5, 1924. She was one of two children of Willam Francis and Elsa Brainin Wholey who ran an office furnishings business in New York City and maintained an upper-class standard of living. She attended the Fox Hollow School for girls in Lenox, Massachusetts, as well as The Hewitt School in New York City. At age ten, a friend of her parents, the American sculptor Gutzon Borglum, suggested she study with the American sculptor Harriet Whitney