Emma Hart Willard
Emma Hart Willard was born on February 23, 1787 in rural Berlin, Connecticut. Her family was large; she was one of 17 children born into the family whose farm south of Hartford was quite a prosperous operation. As a young girl, she showed an early interest in learning. She was inquisitive and self-reliant. It was not common at the time to encourage young women to seek anything but an ordinary basic education, but Emma’s father could see that she was anything but ordinary, and he encouraged her in her desire to learn. She was included in family discussions that were at the time considered to be male areas of thought, such as politics, philosophy, world affairs, and mathematics. Emma entered Berlin Academy when she was 15, and flew through what the school had to offer.
A few years later she was teaching there, while still studying for herself. She also taught for a short time in Westfield, Massachusetts, until she accepted a position as principal of the women’s academy at Middlebury, Vermont in 1807. Emma at this time was only 20 years old, but she was quite successful as a teacher and administrator. Here she also met her husband, Dr. John Willard, a prominent citizen and freethinker. Like Emma’s father, Dr. Willard encouraged Emma in her educational pursuits.
In 1814, Emma opened the Middlebury tutoring the younger children. Female Seminary, a boarding school for Emma was just twenty years old when women, in her own home. It was the beginning of Emma realizing her dream of a school where women could live together and learn away from the confines of their homes and communities.
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In 1818, Emma drafted a landmark proposal –A “Plan for Improving Female Education” — proposing the establishment of a publicly funded female academy of higher learning. She sent the plan to the New York State legislature, where it was received with mixed feelings. However, New York’s Gov. Clinton liked the plan and became an ardent supporter of improving female education. Emma’s first school was established in Waterford, NY, but it received only a small amount of funding from the state. In 1821, when the city council of Troy New York approved money to fund the establishment of a female seminary, Emma moved to Troy to start the school. The Troy Female Seminary was an enormous success, and became a model for female education — all before public high schools for girls had opened in the United States. In 1838, Emma handed over the daily management of the school to her son, and spent the remainder of her life traveling, writing, and advocating equal education for women. Emma Willard died in 1870, and in 1895, the school was renamed the Emma Willard School in her honor.
