Elwood W. Kemp
Indiana State
Normal School
1882-1914

Elwood W. Kemp was both student and professor at Indiana State Normal School. While not much is known about Kemp’s personal
life or life outside ISNS, it is abundantly clear that he was a passionate
instructor who inspired several generations of Indiana schoolteachers. He was also very loyal to his alma mater, and
played an important role in helping the institution survive, grow, and flourish
during his long tenure.
As one of the earliest graduates of the new Indiana State Normal School,
Kemp, along with five other men and ten women, received his teaching
credentials in 1880. He specialized in
American history, a subject long near to his heart. The esteem of his classmates is reflected in
his election as the representative of the Class of 1880. Interestingly, he evidently did not stray far
from Terre Haute following graduation (though he
noted at a reunion many years later that several classmates had gone on to
destinations like California and New York), since he
reprised his speaking role at commencement in 1881. At those exercises, Kemp reportedly stole the
show by proposing a satirical toast to “The Normal School Yard,” in which he
aimed mock admiration at the ISNS grounds, which had remained conspicuously
unimproved since the school’s opening in 1870.
Nevertheless, his affection for the insitution
was borne out by his eventual decision to teach there himself.
In 1882, William Wood Parsons was
made the head of the History Department, as well as the head of Grammar and
Composition. Parsons gave Kemp his first
shot at teaching by passing along to him some of his own teaching duties for
the 1882-1883 academic year. It seems that between 1883 and 1886, however,
Kemp found little or no work at ISNS.
But his prospects improved in 1886, when Agnes F. Reynolds resigned as
acting professor of history at the end of the fall semester. Kemp was elected by the other professors to
carry out Reynolds’ duties for the remainder of the year. This temporary post eventually turned into a
permanent one, though, as he was made a full professor himself just two years
later—a testament, apparently, to his advanced teaching skills.
Kemp served as a full professor
of history from 1888 to 1914, with an emphasis on American history and history
research methods. In 1897, he authored a
highly influential textbook entitled An
Outline of Method in History,
which was the standard work on the subject for many years across the
country. Many of the chapters in his
book, such as “The Nature of History,” “The Relation of Geography to the
Movement of History,” and “The Forms into Which History Takes” were more widely
disseminated as articles in scholarly journals.
Kemp was also a featured contributor to the school yearbook, The Normal Advance, in 1896 and 1898.
It is clear that Kemp was very interested in history
methodologies. In his synthesis of the
history of Indiana
State Teachers’
College, William Lynch noted that Kemp stood out
in the History Department because he not only instructed ISNS students in how
best to teach history, but also required those same students to read history in
earnest, as well as to try to “re-live” history in various ways. This may seem odd to modern readers, but it
was an important distinction at a time when few Normal school classes strayed
from purely methodological and theoretical concerns. Lynch also remarked that Kemp never seemed
completely happy teaching at a Normal school, partly because he had always
desired to teach at the grade school level.
According to one of his former students and colleagues, Kemp paid less
and less attention in later years to anything that had previously characterized
his work—another indication, perhaps, with an underlying sense of professional
restlessness.
In 1910, only eight professors remained at Indiana State
Normal School who had
been there since the early days in the 1880’s; one of them was Elwood
Kemp. While it is not exactly clear when
Kemp assumed a leadership role in the department, it was probably no earlier
than 1908, since the first publication to list him as Chair dates from the
spring of 1909. Kemp took a leave of
absence from ISNS from 1913-1914, immediately followed by his resignation. While the available sources do not say
exactly why he left, failing health seems as likely a reason as any, as he was
probably in his fifties by this time. In
any case, his professional record bears witness to a dedicated scholar and
teacher who dedicated at least thirty-seven years to the Indiana State
Normal School.
.
Kurt E. Waywood
2007
References
Lynch, William O. A History of Indiana State Teachers College. Terre Haute: Indiana State Teachers College,
1929.
The Normal Advance. Volume II (1897). Indiana
State University
Archives.
The Normal Advance. Volume VIII (1898). Indiana
State University
Archives.
The Normal Advance. Volume XIV (1909). Indiana
State University
Archives.
Selected Published Works
Outline
of Method in History. 1897.
History for Graded and
District Schools. Boston: Ginn, 1902.
“Great Men
in History.” The Normal Advance. Volume II (1896). Indiana
State University
Archives.
“Culture
and Its Purposes.” The Normal Advance. Volume VIII (1898). Indiana State University
Archives.