John A. Boland, Sr.  President of Mount Rushmore National Memorial Society of Black Hills
 
The state of South Dakota and the community of the Black Hills have logically and with undiminished zeal accepted a considerable financial and moral responsibility in the evolution of this magnificent Shrine of Democracy.
 
Through the successive stages of locating, planning, sculptoring, improving and publicizing Mount Rushmore, a liaison with Sculptor Gutzon Borglum and his son, Lincoln, the President, the Congress and the Department of Interior has been maintained through the instrumentalities of three nonprofit organizations.
 
The Mount Harney Memorial Association was first authorized to “carve a memorial in heroic figures” under an act of Congress, approved by President Coolidge on March 4, 1925. Brought into being through a bill passed by the South Dakota Legislature, the Association entered into a formal contract with Gutzon Borglum and work was commenced in 1927.
 
Subsequently in 1929, when Federal funds were appropriated for matching purposes, the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Commission was created, consisting of twelve members to be named by the President.
 
Appointed by President Coolidge to serve on the commission were John A. Boland, Rapid City, S. D.; Charles R. Crane, New York, N. Y.; Joseph S. Cullinan, Houston, Texas; C. M. Day, Sioux Falls, S. D.; D. B. Gurney, Yankton, S. D.; Hale Holden, Chicago; Frank O. Lowden, Oregon, Ill.; Julius Rosenwald, Chicago; Fred W. Sargent, Evanston, Ill. and Mrs. Lorine Jones Spoonts, Corpus Christi, Texas.
 
Mr. Cullinan became the Commission’s first president and Mr. Boland was named chairman of the executive committee at a session in the White House, where it met upon invitation of the President on June 6, 1929.
 
It was the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Commission which assumed financial responsibility for the Memorial, taking over all property and contracts from the Mount Harney Association, employing the services of a staff for the sculptor and disbursing federal and privately-solicited funds during the course of construction.
 
It was also the parent organization for the present Mount Rushmore National Memorial Society of Black Hills, incorporated under the laws of the District of Columbia in 1930. And w............