Tina Nichols Coury spent over 17 years working on her first book, Hanging Off Jefferson’s Nose (Dial, 2012). During that time, she searched for information about the great sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, who designed and supervised building Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. As Coury learned more about Gutzon, she also found that his son, Lincoln Borglum, played an important role in finishing the project. The illustrator, Sally Wern Comport, created the artwork from original black-and-white drawings and mixed media layered digital files that were printed in their hybrid state with the final paintings rendered in acrylic and pastel. (The information about the art is taken from the book.)

This short clip is from a silent film that shows some of the blasting of the work and the construction of Mount Rushore.