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Rushmore In Progress, 1930s.

We’ve got a lot of old photos – almost more than we know what to do with.   This one is so over-saturated, so light, that I had to really darken it in Photoshop just to see anything, and I didn’t realize what it was at first:

You might be thinking, “Wow — it kinda looks like there’s a face in those rocks!  Weird, huh?”

Well, that’s because Gutzon Borglum put a face there: that is several years away from becoming the Mount Rushmore we know and love today — President Washington is only partially done:

Carving started in 1927, and the finished Washington face was unveiled to the public on July 4th, 1934, so that puts this photo somewhere in between, probably 1932 or 1933.  Based on this 1932 photo, progress seemed at about the same point, so 1932 is probably right.  They didn’t carve all the faces at once — Washington was completed in 1934, Jefferson in 1936, Lincoln in 1937, and then Roosevelt in 1939.   About 4 years after the photo above, here’s how much progress they made:

Jefferson’s nearly done and they got Lincoln’s nose, which puts this postcard at about 1936 or 1937.

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The King David Praying for Solomon, 1980s

The King David Praying For Solomon, a woodcut by Shirley Swenson. Note the reversed letters on the right (would be the left side of the printblock). The print is not dated nor numbered, but it is quite clearly an original hand-printed piece of art. The size of the woodcut was huge — 13″ x 18″, and carries enormous detail. It was poorly mounted in a cheap frame, and the materials used seem to date to the 70s or 80s. According to a note on the back, Shirley Swenson was the daughter of Cora Swenson of Libby, Montana. No other information is available. We purchased it for $15 at the Moorhead Salvation Army thrift shop.