In 1857, McMurry was born in Crawfordsville, Indiana, but following the premature death of his father, his mother moved the family to rural Illinois where he and his siblings would begin attending Normal schools, specifically in Normal, Illinois. This is where Charles McMurry would meet Edmund J. James, a prominent educational figure in economics and academia throughout Illinois universities and schools.[2][3]
In 1886, McMurry traveled to Halle, Germany to continue his education.[2][4] He completed his Ph.D. in Halle in 1887 and brought back the teachings of German Herbartianist, Willheim Rein to the United States.[2]
In 1889, Charles McMurry returned to Normal and began teaching as an assistant of the training school at Illinois State Normal University.[2] This is where he, his brother Frank and Charles DeGarmo, alongside many other prominent adherents of Herbartianism established the National Herbart Club in 1892.[2][6] The establishment of the National Herbart Club allowed for teachers, faculty, and students to participate in discussion of education and how to instruct Herbartian practices. Participation of the club in National Education Association meetings helped solidify Illinois State as the Herbartian capital of the United States, as information discussed within NEA meetings began to spread throughout normal schools across the United States.[1][2][4]
In 1895, members of the National Herbart Club established the National Herbart Society for the Scientific Study of Education (NHS), marking the height of Herbartian educational influence in the United States.[5] Shortly after the establishment of the NHS, McMurry began to compile various works of Herbartian educational instruction from faculty at ISNU, to create The First Supplement to the Yearbook of the National Herbart Society in 1895.[1] The "yearbook" was rather a symposium for faculty and students at ISNU to engage in academic conversation in regards to early childhood education, secondary education, and post-secondary education, though its publication and distribution impacted educational institutions across the United States.[1][2]
In 1899, Charles McMurry helped establish an education program for teaching at Northern Illinois State Normal School, where he served as director of educational instruction under John W. Cook.[2][4][5][7] McMurry Hall on the NIU campus is named after him and his sister-in law, Lida Brown McMurry.[7] His success as an early pioneer of Herbartianism in the United States allowed him to teach across the country.
McMurry taught and wrote about various ideologies of education, but is most notable for his work in Herbartianism. He authored and submitted over one hundred fifty works in seven hundred sixty-nine publications, until his death in 1929.[8]
Published works
The Elements of General Method (1892; sixth edition, revised, 1903)[9]
Special Method of Reading (1898; new edition, 1910)
Special Method in Literature and History (1898)
Special Method in Geography (1898)
Special Method in Natural Science (1896; second edition, 1899)
Pioneer History Stories (three volumes, 1891; fifth edition, 1898)
Special Method in Primary Reading and Oral Work (1903)
Special Method in Reading in the Grades (1908)
Handbook of Practice for Teachers (1914)
Conflicting Principles of Teaching and How to Adjust them (1915)
Notes
^ abcdHarper, Charles A. (1935). Development of The Teachers College in the United States, With Special Reference to the Illinois State Normal University. Bloomington, Illinois: McKnight & McKnight. p. 204.
^ abCremin, Lawrence A. (1940). "Frank Morton McMurry" Dictionary of American Biography (XXII, Supplement Two ed.). New York: Auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies. pp. 423–424.
^ abcdeTYLER, KENNETH. 1982. "The Educational Life and Work of Charles A. McMurry: 1872–1929." Ph.D. diss., Northern Illinois University.