Luigi Del Bianco

NPS Photo/Harpers Ferry Center

Quick Facts

Significance:

Chief Carver at Mount Rushmore

Place of Birth:

La Havre, France

Date of Birth:

May 8, 1892

Place of Death:

January 20, 1969

Date of Death:

New York

Artist Luigi Del Bianco served as the Chief Carver at Mount Rushmore. He began working on the sculpture in 1933 and was designated the Chief Carver by Gutzon Borglum in 1935.  Working the 1936 and 1940 field seasons, Del Bianco was charged with carving the refinement of expression on the four faces. He had studied carving in Venice, Austria and immigrated to the United States from Italy as a teenager.  He worked for Borglum on Stone Mountain in Georgia and other projects before the designer again sought his expertise at Mount Rushmore. Del Bianco’s primary residence was in Port Chester, New York where he had a successful stone carving business.