Emma Willard (February 23, 1787 – April 15, 1870) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
women's rightsThe term women's rights refers to freedoms and entitlements of women and girls of all ages. These rights may or may not be institutionalized, ignored or suppressed by law, local custom, and behavior in a particular society...
advocate and the pioneer who founded the first women's school of
higher educationHigher education refers to a level of education that is provided by universities, vocational universities, community colleges, liberal arts colleges, institutes of technology and other collegiate level institutions, such as vocational schools, trade schools and career colleges, that award academic...
.
Emma Willard was born Emma Hart in
Berlin, ConnecticutBerlin is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 18,215 at the 2000 census. It was incorporated in 1785. The geographic center of Connecticut is located in the town. Berlin is residential and industrial, and served by the Amtrak station of the same name. Berlin...
, the sixteenth of her father's seventeen children and the ninth of her mother's ten children, of Samuel Hart and his second wife, Lydia Hinsdale Hart.
She attended a district school at Worthington Point. Emma started teaching at the age of 17 and shortly after turning 20, received job offers from
Westfield, MassachusettsWestfield is a city in Hampden County, in the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 40,072 at the 2000 census. The ZIP Code is 01085 for homes and businesses, 01086 for Westfield State...
, Middlebury, Vermont, and
Hudson, New YorkHudson is a city located along the west border of Columbia County, New York, United States. The city is named after the adjacent Hudson River and ultimately after the explorer Henry Hudson.-Geography:...
. She accepted the offer from Vermont and moved there. In 1809 she married Dr. John Willard then age 50. Willard brought 4 children from earlier marriages to their marriage. Her husband's nephew, another John Willard, lived with them while attending nearby Middlebury College (male students only).
In 1814, she opened the Middlebury Female Seminary in her home. After moving to
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
she opened the Waterford Academy in 1819 in Waterford, New York, but it was closed in 1821 due to a lack of continued funding by its citizens and administration.
In September 1821, however, the city of Troy of New York, requested that the school be moved there, and Willard accepted the offer and founded the Troy Female Seminary. Afterward, renamed the
Emma Willard SchoolThe Emma Willard School, originally called Troy Female Seminary and often referred to simply as "Emma," is an independent university-preparatory day and boarding school for young women, located in Troy, New York on the scenic Mount Ida, offering grades 9-12 and PG...
, it was notably prosperous and successful.
Mrs. Willard's husband died in 1825, but she continued to manage the institution until 1838, when she placed it in the hands of her son and her daughter-in-law. In 1830, she made a tour of
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
, and three years later published
Journals and Letters from Great Britain; the proceeds from the sale of the book she gave to a school for women that she helped to found in Athens, Greece.
She married Dr.John Willard Yates in 1838 and moved with him to Boston. He gave up his career, and after nine-months of marriage they separated and a
Decree nisiA decree nisi is a ruling by a court that does not have any force until such time that a particular condition is met. Once the condition is met the ruling becomes decree absolute and is binding...
was granted in 1843.
She was a free woman at the age of 60 years and continued her writing. On 15 April 1870 she died in Troy, New York and was interred at Oakwood Cemetery.
Her works include
The Woodbridge and Willard Geographies and Atlases, (1823);
History of the United States, (1828);
Universal History in Perspective, (1837);
Treatise on the Circulation of the Blood, (1846); and
Last Leaves of American History, (1849).
She co-authored
A System of Universal Geography on the Principles of Comparison and Classification. Her
Life was written by
John LordJohn Lord, was an American historian and lecturer.Born at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, he graduated from Dartmouth in 1833 and then entered the Andover Theological Seminary, where in his second year he wrote a series of lectures on the Dark Ages, which he delivered the next fall during a tour...
(New York, 1873). A statue honoring her services to the cause of higher education was erected in
TroyTroy is a city in New York, U.S., and the county seat of Rensselaer County. As of the 2000 census, the population was 49,170. Troy's motto is Ilium fuit, Troja est, which means "Ilium was, Troy is."...
in 1895.
External links