
Emma Willard
early feminist educator
Emma Willard grew up in an era when the primary aim of women's education was to "decorate the blossom." And, to do so according to the tastes of men. An ace student who became a teacher at age 17, Emma quickly became dissatisfied with overseeing coursework mainly designed to make ladies attractive to suitors.
In 1814, she founded her own boarding school to offer women a well-rounded education in the sciences + humanities. By 1821, she had secured enough support + investment to open her own campus ~ the Troy Female Seminary. A decade later, it had 300 students and was turning a profit. The success of her school made Emma an education celebrity who published top textbooks and lectured widely in the US + Europe. Her Troy campus is still at the forefront of innovative teaching today. Among its "Emma girls" ~ women's rights champions like suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton + actor Jane Fonda!
pioneering spirit | founded first women's school of higher education
1814 | opened a boarding school for women in her own home ~ Middlebury Female Seminary
1819 | wrote a polemical pamphlet on women's education + addressed New York State Legislature
1821 | opened Troy Female Seminary ~ first school of higher education for women in the U.S.
from | to
scholarly child encouraged by her father | founder of first women's school in America + prominent advocate for women's education
born on
February 23, 1787
born in
Berlin, Connecticut
birth name
Frances Elizabeth Caroline Hart
also known as
Emma
citizen of
The United States of America
daughter of
Samuel Hart + Lydia Hinsdale Hart
~ well-to-do farmers ~
sister of
16 siblings {Emma was second youngest}
educated at
a local Academy in Connecticut
~ 1802-1804 ~
loved studying
history
geography
married to
John Willard
~ a widowed doctor | 1809 to {his death in} 1825 ~
divorced from
Dr. Christopher Yates
~ married in 1838, but separated almost immediately | divorced in 1844 ~
mother of
1 son | John Hart Willard
advocate for
women's education
Christianity
peace {because of Civil War}
in her spare time
authored textbooks that sold more than 1 mllion copies
wrote articles + poetry
died
April 15, 1870
image credit
Eminent Women of the Age {1869} | takeabreak
collapse bio bits"Who knows how great and good a race of men may yet arise from the forming hands of mothers, enlightened by the bounty of their beloved country?"
A Plan for Improving Female Education | 1819
"Would we rear the human plant to its perfection, we must fertilize the soil which produces it."
A Plan for Improving Female Education | 1819
"Any women has a right to open a school in any place; and no one, either from law or custom, can prevent her."
A Plan for Improving Female Education | 1819
"Though well to decorate the blossom, it is far better to prepare for the harvest."
A Plan for Improving Female Education | 1819
"The taste of men, whatever it might happen to be, has been made a standard for the formation of the female character."
Mrs. Willard's Plan of Female Education | 1819
"It is obvious, that theory alone, can never make a good artist; and it is equally obvious, that practice unaided by theory, can never correct errors, but must establish them."
A Plan for Improving Female Education | 1819
"We too are primary existences . . . the companions, not the satellites of men."
Mrs. Willard's Plan of Female Education | 1819
"He is not necessarily the best teacher who performs the most labour; makes his pupils work the hardest, and bustle the most. A hundred cents of copper, though they make more clatter and fill more space, have only a tenth of the value of one gold eagle."
How to Teach | published 1851
for further reading about Emma Willard:
curated with care by Alicia Williamson {august 2015}
Emma Hart Willard
Emma grew up with 16 siblings in a New England farmhouse. Her parents believed in educating their girls alongside the boys, but Emma didn't attend formally attend school until she was a teenager. She entered her first school at age 15. Two years later, she was hired as a teacher there. She went on to become her generation's most prominent woman in higher education.
Nathaniel Bartlett Sylvester | rootsweb
Public domain
Emma Willard House, Middlebury
Emma once taught at Vermont's Middlebury College. Today, her historic home there serves as the school's admissions building. Emma wasn't overly impressed for the courses they had on offer for women in the early 19th century, but her own liberal arts programs were influenced by the curriculum for Middlebury's male seminary {where her nephew taught}. In 1814, she decided to leave her position as headmistress + open her own boarding school ~ in this very house. You might say, it's the birthplace of female higher ed!
PeneloplsMe
CC BY-SA
Emma's chronographer of history
Besides being a teacher + administrator, Emma wrote a number of textbooks on pedagogy, geography + history. This 1851 lithograph is Emma's visual aid for teaching ancient history. It maps out a timeline of early human civilization ~ from the dawn of man at the back, to the Roman Empire + birth of Jesus at the front. The ceiling charts important thinkers + leaders; the columns note rulers; the floor traces major events in international development + world politics.
Napolean Sarony | Library of Congress
Public domain
dedication ceremony for Emma
In 1895, the Troy Female Seminary was renamed the Emma Willard School. A sculpture of the founder was commissioned outside Russell Sage Hall in honor of the occasion.
Lloyd | Emma Willard School
Public domain