Willard, Emma Hart

Emma Hart (1787-1870), an American educator. She was born at Berlin, Connecticut, February 23, 1787, and died at Troy, New York, April 13, 1870. She was principal of a school for girls in Middlebury, Vermont. In 1809 she married Dr. John Willard. In 1814 she opened a boarding school for girls in her own home. In 1819 she was encouraged by Governor Clinton to remove her school to Waterford, New York. In 1823, being offered a suitable building, she removed to Troy and established the Troy Female Seminary, the name of which in 1892 was changed to the Emma Willard School. Prior to Mrs. Willard's death 15,000 girls had been students in this school. Mr. Willard died in 1825. A few years later she married a Dr. Yates, from whom she soon obtained a divorce, resuming her former name. Mrs. Willard traveled extensively at home and in England, everywhere advo-cating the higher education of women. To appreciate her work it is necessary to remember that she entered the educational field when it was believed that women had no need of high school or college studies and no intellect to master them. Mrs. Willard and her school were the forerunners of higher education for women. She was the author of several popular school books. One of these was Willard's Geography, the text and maps of which were published in separate volumes: Other texts were her History of the United States and an Astronomy for Schools. She was a woman of no little poetic fancy. She was the author of Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep. See Stanton; Elizabeth Cady; Livermore; Mary