Mount Rushmore, an iconic monument to American history, began in 1927 and was completed in 1941. A chief stone carver on the project, Luigi Del Bianco was an Italian immigrant and 35 years old when the project started. He worked on the site for most of 14 years of blasting and chiseling granite that it took to finish the work. Del Bianco was responsible for many of the finer details in Lincoln’s face.

Del Bianco’s daughter Gloria and her nephew, Lou, sat down at StoryCorps to share their memories of him and the work he did.

In 1966, Luigi gave an interview in which he discussed how difficult it was to work on the monument.

Originally aired October 27, 2011 on NPR’s Morning Edition.