Susan B. Anthony Denied a Place
Mount Rushmore immortalized four iconic American presidents for various achievements and philosophies which represented a symbolic span of American History. However, there was one additional face which was suggested for inclusion within the carving on the mountain, and it was someone noteworthy for being neither a U.S. president nor an Anglo-American male – Susan B. Anthony, noted feminist leader and suffragette.
In 1935 Congresswoman Caroline O'Day along with Eleanor Roosevelt championed the cause of adding Susan B. Anthony's face to the august visages on the developing national monument. (Glass, 1991) The motion was defeated in Congress by having the monument closed to any new additional figures beyond the four initial subjects proposed by Gutzon Borglum. The rationale given was that the sculpture was already expensive, and new figures would require additional funding.
Although nothing came of the proposition to include Anthony on the mountain, Gutzon Borglum heeded the political momentum of the request, and envisioned doing a sculpture of Susan B. Anthony to be housed within the Hall of Records. However, when the funding was frozen for his work on the Hall, his planned depiction of Anthony never came to fruition.