On Saturday June 21 at 1:30 pm, residents of Port Chester and beyond will hold a memorial honoring Luigi Del Bianco, a talented immigrant artist who truly lived the American dream.
Lou Del Bianco with his grandfather’s likeness in marble - Advertisement -
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Bianco was the chief carver on for the nation’s most iconic sculpture, the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. Bianco was born in the small town of Meduno in Italy, immigrating to the United States in 1920. Designer Gutzon Borglum—the son of Danish immigrants—hired Bianco in 1933 to assist him creating the “refinement of expression” in the sculpture’s faces.
When The Carving of Mount Rushmore by Rex Allen Smith was published, the Del Bianco family was surprised to see no mention of Luigi in it. Luigi’s son, Caesar, and grandson, Lou, made four separate trips to the Library of Congress to research the Borglum papers. They found letters of Borglum praising “Bianco” and his importance to the sculpture.
Lou Del Bianco is now fighting the National Park Service to recognize his grandfather as the Chief Carver. Despite documentation, the National Park Service has yet to recognize Del Bianco with the title. Westchester Magazine did a Q&A with Lou Del Bianco about his efforts to honor his grandfather, which you can read here.