Abraham Lincoln, Preserver of the Union

Lincoln was the man who kept the country together during the Civil War.

The choice of Abraham Lincoln as one of the presidents was an easy one for Gutzon Borglum. He had always loved Lincoln and had done several sculptures of him in the past. One was a marble bust of Lincoln for the Capitol in Washington, D.C. In fact in 1908 Robert Lincoln said it was, "the most extraordinarily good portrait of my father I have ever seen."

Also, in 1911 Borglum carved a huge statue of Lincoln for the courthouse in Newark, New Jersey. Children have always like to climb on it so it has become known as the "Children's Lincoln."

Lincoln Borglum said, "A life-long admirer of Lincoln, my father had read everything he could find about Lincoln. Many observers have remarked that the compassionate face of Lincoln is the most skillfully carved of the four faces of Mount Rushmore. If this is true it is no doubt because of my father's great reverence and love for Lincoln, his favorite subject.