Inscribe Rushmore!
 As the artist Gutzon Borglum originally envisioned it, Mount Rushmore was to include an inscription to explain the sculpture to future archaeologists. The Entablature, as he called it, would describe the history of the United States in 500 words. President Calvin Coolidge was invited to write the text, but Borglum alienated Coolidge forever by rejecting his submission.
Borglum then decided to hold a contest -- and the American public submitted over 100,000 histories of the United States. The overall winner was John Edward Bradley, and the college-age winner was William Burkett, but Borglum hated their entries as much as he'd hated President Coolidge's. The mountain carving proceeded without the Entablature, and today the heads stand out from the rock without a single word of text next to them.
Contest Winners Announced!
We asked if you thought you could do better -- and we accepted many entries between January and May 2002. The contest is now closed. We received a lot of good entries. Thanks to all who sent them. Here are the winners.
In addition to our first place winner, Christopher A. Porricelli, Paul Jacob Foy, Ms. Wells' class, and Steph Cavagnaro were chosen for honorable mention. Even though the contest was for kids, many grown-ups also sent in inscriptions. Here are a few of our favorites.
The winning entries will NOT, of course, be carved onto South Dakota's most famous attraction -- carving work ended there in 1941. But the winners will be featured here, on the American Experience Web site, in perpetuity -- and the first place winner will receive a complete set of Presidents biographies from American Experience.
Read the official rules for this contest.
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