JACKSON, GEORGE PULLEN, 1874-1953

Biography:

Ethnomusicologist, linguist, college professor. Born– August 20, 1874, Monson, Maine (moved to Birmingham as a child). Parents– George Frederick and Ann Jane (Pullen) Jackson. Married– Inez Emeline Wright, December 23, 1906 (died 1918).  Children–two. Married– Lois Diantha Barnes, December 18, 1926 (died 1939). Education– Royal Conservatory of Music, Dresden, 1897-1898; Vanderbilt University, 1900-1901; University of Chicago, Ph.B., 1904, Ph.D., 1911; postgraduate work, University of Chicago, University of Munich, University of Bonn. Employed by his father’s company, Huston Biscuit Co., Birmingham, 1895-1900; taught German at Kansas State Agricultural College; Case School of Applied Science; University of Chicago; Oberlin College; Northwestern University; University of North Dakota; Vanderbilt University, 1918-1943. President, University Philharmonic Society, Grand Fork, North Dakota; founder of Nashville Symphony Orchestra; founder of Tennessee Music Teachers Association; founder of Old Harp Singers of Nashville and other shaped note singing groups; member, board of advisors to the editors of Southern Folklore Quarterly; member and president, South Atlantic Modern Language Association. Died January 19, 1953.

Source:

“George Pullen Jackson, An Appreciation,” Southern Folklore Quarterly, XVII (March 1953).

Marquis Who’s Who Online.

Publication(s):

Another Sheaf of White Spirituals. Gainesville, Fla.; University of Florida Press, 1952.

Down East Spirituals. New York; J.J. Augustin, 1943.

Spiritual Folksongs of Early America. New York; J. J. Augustin, 1937.

Story of the Sacred Harp. Nashville; Vanderbilt University Press, 1944.

White and Negro Spirituals. New York; J. J. Augustin, 1943.

White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands. Chapel Hill, N.C.; University of North Carolina Press, 1933.

Editor:

American Folk Music for High School and Other Choral Groups. Boston; C. C. Burchard, 1947.

Papers;

The Special Collections Department at the Heard Library at Vanderbilt University holds an extensive collection of papers and other materials of George Pullen Jackson. A collection of George Pullen Jackson’s books and papers is held by the library at UCLA.

Updated 09/21/2011