Professor of Music at the University of Wisconsin from 1918 until his retirement from active service on July 1, 1944, Edgar B. Gordon was long associated with music education programs and with activities for the development of musical interest among the youth of the state of Wisconsin. Gordon was born on March 22, 1875, in Frankfurt, Indiana. His father was a piano tuner, instrument instructor, and organizer and director of singing schools in the community. After graduating from high school in 1893, Gordon studied music in Chicago and for several years taught violin in a private studio. Influenced by Jane Addams, he began to express interest in social work and community development programs. Gordon felt that underprivileged people--both young and old--would find enjoyment and benefit in music. From 1901 to 1906, he directed musical activities in the “Chicago Commons,” an active settlement project. For a year he was director of the Los Angeles College Settlement House. From that position, Gordon went to Southwestern College at Winfield, Kansas. Gordon came to the University of Wisconsin Extension Division in 1916 and became a professor in the School of Music several years later.
Professor Gordon's most extraordinary work was in the field of radio education. In 1921-1922, he presented a series of weekly music appreciation broadcasts--the first educational broadcasts to be given by an American radio station. In 1931, Gordon organized Journeys in Music Land--weekly music appreciation/participation broadcasts for the school children of Wisconsin--over Wisconsin School of the Air, WHA. Although retiring from the faculty of the University of Wisconsin in 1944, Professor Gordon continued to direct Journeys in Music Land until 1955. Between 1937 and 1955, he reached more than one million Wisconsin school children.
