Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

Papers of William S. Tallman, Accession #12129, 12129-a, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collection was given to Special Collections, University of Virginia Library by John Tallman, Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, on December 21, 2001 (Series I); and in 2002 (Series II).

Biographical/Historical Information

William Staples Tallman, b. April 13, 1906, in Brooklyn, New York, d. June 19, 1997, at Signal Mountain, Tennessee. In 1928, worked with sculptor Gutzon Borglum in San Antonio, Texas, on the North Carolina Monument which was erected at Gettysburg National Military Park and served as model for the monument's lead figure. In 1929, he began working with Borglum at Keystone, South Dakota, on Mount Rushmore, and served as superintendent of construction there from 1930 to 1935. Tallman owned a pottery studio in Keystone until 1940 and then worked for thirty years, beginning in 1941, with a company that manufactured technical ceramics. Moved to Texas in 1976 where he had a sculpting studio. During his later years in life, gave talks and presentations on his role at Mount Rushmore.

Gutzon Borglum, born John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum, March 25, 1867, in Idaho Territory, and died March 6, 1941, Chicago. Raised in California and studied art at the Académie Julian in Paris, where he met Auguste Rodin, whose work greatly influenced him. Borglum focused on American subjects, especially well-known figures of American democracy, and many of his works are best characterized as monumental. In 1915 the United Daughters of the Confederacy approached him about making a massive granite carving of Robert E. Lee at Stone Mountain, Georgia. Borglum began work in the 1920s on a more elaborate memorial to the Confederacy but quit in 1925. Opinionated, confrontational, and ambitious, Borglum devoted much energy between 1927 and 1941 to the creation of Mount Rushmore, his best known work. Work on the four giant 60-foot presidential faces was near completion at the time of his death. His son Lincoln finished the work in October 1941.

The Rommel family includes George McCullough Rommel, b. January 26, 1876, Mount Pleasant, Iowa, d. November 26, 1945, Chattanooga, Tennessee. George Rommel was the father of Anne Margaret ("Peggy") Rommel, wife of William S. Tallman. She was born on October 17, 1907, in Washington, DC. Her brother was Alexander Ross Rommel, who graduated from the University of Virginia in 1935 with a Bachelor of Science degree

Mount Rushmore is located in the Black Hills of South Dakota, southwest of Rapid City. Sculptor Gutzon Borglum selected it for his massive sculpture of the faces of American presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt because of the height of the mountain (5725 feet), the consistency of its granite, and its long exposure to sunlight. The sculpture's subjects are supposed to represent America's struggle for independence, democratic government, union and equality, and role in Twentieth Century world affairs. Started on August 10, 1927, it took 14 years to complete, during which time weather and funding shortfalls causing many delays in its creation.

Scope and Content

The William S. Tallman papers consist of ca. 800 items (9 Hollinger boxes, 4 linear feet), 1901-2000, generated and accumulated by William S. Tallman, who worked from 1929-1935 under sculptor Gutzon Borglum on the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The carving of Mount Rushmore spanned the years 1927-1941. In his later years during the 1980s and 1990s, Tallman gave talks and presentations about his work on Mount Rushmore to people and organizations interested in promoting the mountain and celebrating its fiftieth anniversary. Also included in the Tallman papers is correspondence generated by members of the family of Tallman's wife, Anne Margaret ("Peggy") Rommel Tallman. Peggy's brother, Alexander Ross Rommel (known as Ross), a 1935 University of Virginia graduate and his father George M. Rommel are well represented, as are Ross's siblings and George's wife, Sarah. There is further correspondence among members of the Tallman family, including numerous letters from Peggy (Rommel) Tallman to William S. Tallman prior to and during their courtship and while they were married.

Arrangement

The papers are arranged in the following series: I. Professional and Career Papers of William S. Tallman. II. Papers of the Rommel Family. III. Papers of the Tallman Family. Within series papers are generally arranged alphabetically and chronologically for correspondence and alphabetically by topic for all other materials.

Series I, Professional and Career Papers of William S. Tallman, include diaries, reports, time books, payroll records, correspondence, promotional materials, newspaper and magazine clippings, black and white photographs and negatives, and other memoranda related to the carving of the Mount Rushmore memorial and other projects with which Gutzon Borglum was affiliated, such as Stone Mountain's Confederate Memorial Carving in Georgia and the North Carolina Monument at Gettysburg National Military Park, Pennsylvania. Correspondence with Borglum, John A. Boland (Chairman, Executive Committee, Mount Rushmore National Memorial Commission), and others from the 1920s and 1930s, gives insight into Mount Rushmore during its creation. During the 1980s and 1990s Tallman corresponded with various people interested in and associated with the monument such as descendants of Borglum (including his son and daughter, Lincoln and Mary Ellis), Rushmore workers and their relatives, and writers and scholars researching the monument (including Borglum biographers Howard and Audrey Shaff). Materials from the 1920s and 1930s include hand-drawn sketches of Mount Rushmore and numerous highly detailed black and white photographs of workmen, drilling and blasting operations, equipment and construction techniques, and scale models of sculptures. There are newspaper and magazine articles from the 1980s and 1990s related to Mount Rushmore and Tallman's role in its creation. Tallman's notes and working materials for talks and presentations he gave later in his life are also included.

Series II, Papers of the Rommel Family, consist of correspondence of Alexander Ross Rommel and his father George M. Rommel, William Tallman's brother-in-law and uncle. Most of the correspondence contains family news and expresses filial and parental love. Of interest is an April 11, 1918, letter from George M. Rommel to his father, John Robert Alexander Rommel (known as Alexander), a native of Thuringia, Germany, which expresses strong pro-American sentiment and support for the war effort of the United States and cautions Alexander that if he is comes to live with his son, he must not do anything to influence the loyalty of his household to the American cause, where the flag flew night and day and German language newspapers and magazines were not permitted. There is also considerable correspondence between father and son and George's brother, Arthur, on the purchase and maintenance of farm property in Frederick County, Maryland. There is a large number of letters written between the mid-1920s and mid-1940s by George M. and Sarah Rommel to their son, Ross, and his wife Mary Jane (Hale) Rommel (known as Jane), expressing great fondness and parental affection for the couple. Family news is one of the main topics of these letters. Also of interest are a 1977 Founder's Day talk by Louis Haselmayer on Alexander Rommel and his role in music education at Iowa Wesleyan College and an unattributed 2000 English translation of a biography of Georg Rommel (Alexander's father) who was cantor at Liebenstein, Germany.

Series III, Papers of the Tallman Family, consist mainly of correspondence among various members of the Tallman family, especially between William S. Tallman and his parents, and from Tallman's wife, Peggy (Rommel) Tallman to her husband, William S. Tallman, before and during their marriage. Employment kept Tallman away from his family for long durations and much of the correspondence contains sentiments of devotion and longing for absent relatives and spouses, especially that of Peggy for William. Of interest are 1901 letters to the engaged and then newlywed William Balch Tallman and Catherine Hereford ("Lilian") Staples from relatives and friends both questioning the rightness of their betrothal and offering encouragement and congratulations to the couple. (William Balch Tallman was William S. Tallman's father.) Similar sentiments of caution and encouragement over marriage between William S. Tallman and Peggy (Rommel) Tallman may be found in 1929 correspondence from members of the Rommel family to William S. Tallman. Finally, there are a number of wartime letters (1942-1945) from relatives and friends to William and Peggy (Rommel) Tallman, almost all written from servicemen and women stationed in the continental United States. A major sentiment running through many of the letters is weariness of the boredom and routine of military life.