Robert Winslow Gordon
| Robert Winslow Gordon | |
|---|---|
 Robert Winslow Gordon with Edison Cylinders |
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| Born | September 2, 1888 Bangor, Maine |
| Died | March 26, 1961 |
| Resting place | Darien, Georgia |
| Nationality | United States |
| Education | Harvard University |
| Occupation | folklorist |
| Employer | University of California at Berkeley, Library of Congress |
Robert Winslow Gordon was born September 2, 1888 in Bangor, Maine. Educated at Harvard, he joined the English faculty at the University of California at Berkley in 1918. He was the founding head of the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress in 1928, later the Archive of Folk Culture, which became part of the American Folklife Center. He was a pioneer in using mechanical means to document folk musicians, originally using Edison cylinder recordings. He is known among folk singers as the originator of the infamous Gordon "Inferno" Collection of American songs, and he also collected an early version of Kumbaya[1]. From 1943 to 1958, he was a Professor of English at George Washington University.He died March 26, 1961.
[edit] References
- ^ Freedman, Samuel G. (19 November 2010). "A Long Road From ‘Come by Here’ to ‘Kumbaya’". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/20/us/20religion.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Winslow%20Gordon&st=cse. Retrieved 20 November 2010.
- Folk-Songs of America: The Robert Winslow Gordon Collection, 1922-1932
- Robert W. Gordon Collection at the University of Oregon
[edit] Biography
Kodish, Debora. Good Friends and Bad Enemies: Robert Winslow Gordon and the Study of American Folksong. ISBN 978-0252012518.
