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 Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

. 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. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...

in 1918. In 1923, he was asked by

Arthur Sullivant Hoffman Arthur Sullivant Hoffman (September 28, 1876 – March 15, 1966) was an American magazine editor. Hoffman is best known for editing the acclaimed pulp magazine ''Adventure'' from 1912 to 1927, Bleiler, Richard. "A History of Adventure Magazine", in ...

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 ...

''.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 repo ...

) at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

in 1928. He was a pioneer in using mechanical means to document folk musicians, originally using

Edison cylinder Phonograph cylinders are the earliest commercial medium for Sound recording and reproduction, recording and reproducing sound. Commonly known simply as "records" in their era of greatest popularity (c. 1896–1916), these hollow cylinder, cylind ...

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 "''Kum ba yah''" ("''Come by here''") is an African American spiritual song of disputed origin, but known to be sung in the Gullah culture of the islands off South Carolina and Georgia, with ties to enslaved West Africans. The song is thought ...

. 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. Chartered in 1821 by the United States Congress, GWU is the largest Higher educat ...

. 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 American folklorists People from Bangor, Maine George Washington University faculty