Herbert Adams Gibbons Peary, and Gutzon Borglum (the sculptor of Mt. Rushmore). Gibbons attended the 17th annual dinner of the group in 1920. Gibbons is an important eyewitness to the Armenian Genocide and the Greek Genocide. Both events occurred in isolated regions at a time when few western observers were present. The contemporaneous reports that Gibbons made to western news organizations concerning these massacres helped corroborate and document these events for present-day scholars. According to the "New York Times", "the career of Dr. Gibbons was one of high adventure. He traveled to remote corners of the world to gain first hand information on
Gutzon Borglum of which had never been attempted before. Many difficulties slowed progress, some because of the sheer scale involved. After finishing the detailed model of the carving, Borglum was unable to trace the figures onto the massive area on which he was working, until he developed a gigantic magic lantern to project the image onto the side of the mountain. Carving officially began on June 23, 1923, with Borglum making the first cut. At Stone Mountain he developed sympathetic connections with the reorganized Ku Klux Klan, who were major financial backers for the monument. Lee's head was unveiled on Lee's birthday