The Bronze Bust of Governor Peter Norbeck at the University of South Dakota

The 1983 image below from the University of South Dakota (USD) Photograph Collection (negative #13,1481.1) depicts John A. Day, Dean of the College Fine Arts, standing on one side of a bronze bust of Peter Norbeck with his hand on the bust. On the other side is Peter Norbeck’s grandson Karl Wegner, MD, the bust's donor.

 In 1980 John A. Day assumed the deanship of the College of Fine Arts at USD. Since 1977, he was founder and director of the University Art Galleries. Previously, he was the Chair of the Department of Fine Arts at USD.

By 1983, Karl Wegner had an illustrative career in the USD School of Medicine as a faculty member and founder of the Laboratory of Clinical Medicine that provided pathology services throughout the state of South Dakota. Importantly, in 1973, Dr. Wegner took over as the Dean of the USD School of Medicine (then a two-year school since 1907) and Vice President of Health Sciences. The following year, Karl Wegner became the founding dean of the four-year medical school. His hard work promoting the concept of a medical school without walls and acquiring funding was critical for the medical school’s success.

Peter Norbeck served as state senator, became Lieutenant Governor in 1916, and ninth Governor of South Dakota from 1917-1921. Subsequently, Peter Norbeck served as US Senator for three terms until his death in 1936 at the age of sixty-six. Peter Norbeck was instrumental in developing tourism in the Black Hills. Part of his efforts included hiring well known sculptor Gutzon Borglum to carve the heads of presidents, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Thomas Jefferson on Mount Rushmore.

Gutzon Borglum made two bronze busts of Peter Norbeck. In 1951, Peter Norbeck’s widow, Lydia Norbeck, gave one bust to the State of South Dakota where it sits in the capital building in Pierre. The other bust became part of the USD Art Collection and was part of a 1984 exhibit honoring Borglum’s impressive art works. Today the USD bust is located in room 118 in Old Main.

References:

The University of South Dakota Archives and Special Collections holds both Peter Norbeck and Karl Wegner’s papers.

-Peter Norbeck Papers (MS 116), Richardson Collection, Archives and Special Collections, The University of South Dakota. https://archives.usd.edu/repositories/2/resources/33

-Karl Wegner Papers, Richardson Collection, Archives and Special Collections, The University of South Dakota. https://sdarchives.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/accessions/504

 The 1984 brochure honoring Gutzon Borglum: Aldern, N. G, et al. Gutzon Borglum: The Artist and the Man. The Broadcaster, Inc., Vermillion, SD. 1984.

Below are the brochure title page and photograph of the Norbeck bust image from the catalogue.