Robert Winslow Gordon
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Robert Winslow Gordon (September 2, 1888 – March 26, 1961) was an American academic, known as a collector of folk songs. Gordon was educated at
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
. He joined the English faculty at the
University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...
in 1918. In 1923, he was asked by Arthur Sullivant Hoffman to run the folk music column "Old Songs Men Have Sung" in Hoffman's magazine, ''
Adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...
''.Paul J. Stamler, "Robert Winslow Gordon", in Scott B. Spencer (ed.) ''The ballad collectors of North America : how gathering folksongs transformed academic thought and American identity''. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2012. (pp. 171-190). Gordon accepted and used the ''Adventure'' column to collect information on traditional American music from the magazine's readers. Gordon was the founding head of the Archive of American Folk Song (later the Archive of Folk Culture, which became part of the
American Folklife Center The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. was created by Congress in 1976 "to preserve and present American Folklife". The center includes the Archive of Folk Culture, established at the library in 1928 as a rep ...
) at the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
in 1928. 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 Gordon "Inferno" Collection of American songs; he also collected an early version of " Kumbaya". From 1943 to 1958, Gordon was a Professor of English at
George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...
. He died March 26, 1961.


References


Folk-Songs of America: The Robert Winslow Gordon Collection, 1922-1932

"Robert W. Gordon collection, ca. 1906-1939"
University of Oregon Libraries Special Collections & University Archives: Archives West. Retrieved April 21, 2017.


Biography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, Robert Winslow 1888 births 1961 deaths Harvard University alumni University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty American folk-song collectors People from Bangor, Maine George Washington University faculty