About

The James D. Vaughan Museum on the Lawrenceburg Square honors the songwriter, teacher, publisher, promoter, and entrepreneur who Congress has declared the Father of Southern Gospel Music.

The James D. Vaughan Publishing Company produced millions of songbooks using the shape-note system, designed to help teach songs to groups of people. Vaughan eventually had 20 professional quartets on the road performing, teaching, and selling songbooks.

The Vaughan School of Music was an annual event that became a full-time venture attracting students from across the country. The Vaughan Family Visitor was a national monthly subscription newsletter, dispensing spiritual advice and Southern Gospel news. The Vaughan Phonograph Company was the first of its kind in Tennessee and so was Vaughan’s radio station, WOAN, which broadcast from his Lawrenceburg studio to 35 states and parts of Canada.

Early printing tools and broadcast equipment, songbooks, scores of photographs, musical instruments and other memorabilia from this early music mogul are on display at the James D. Vaughan Museum. Short videos offer more about the history of Southern Gospel and those who brought it to national prominence. Open Monday-Friday 9:00am-4:30pm