Construction of Mount Rushmore Construction of Mount Rushmore The construction of Mount Rushmore National Memorial took 14 years, from 1927 to 1941. Doane Robinson of the South Dakota Historical Society wanted a monument to be built in South Dakota in order to help the economy of the state by attracting tourism. In 1923, he proposed that this monument should be built from the granite cliffs in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Senator Peter Norbeck of South Dakota approved the proposal, and federal funding helped the project. Robinson asked architect and sculptor Gutzon Borglum to sculpt and design the monument. Borglum decided to use
Gutzon Borglum time to London. In London, she studied with California painter Emil Carlsen. Due to marital problems she returned to southern California in 1902, while Borglum was living in England. After she and Borglum separated in 1903 and divorced in 1908, Elizabeth stayed at "El Rosario". She continued her art career, painting and teaching and taking classes from J. Foxcroft Cole. In 1915, she moved to Venice, California, dying there on May 21, 1922. Elizabeth Borglum's work is rooted in the Tonalist-Barbizon esthetic. Back in the U.S. in New York City he sculpted saints and apostles for the new Cathedral of