Emma Willard Biography

Quick Facts

NAME: Emma Willard
OCCUPATION: Educator
BIRTH DATE: February 23, 1787
DEATH DATE: April 15, 1870
PLACE OF BIRTH: Berlin, Connecticut
PLACE OF DEATH: Troy, New York
Full Name: Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard
Maiden Name: Emma Hart

Best Known For

Emma Willard (1787-1870) was a vocal supporter of female education, and started her own school in Troy, New York that is still going strong.

Quiz

Think you know about Biography?

Answer questions and see how you rank against other players.

Play Now

Print Cite This

Emma Willard

APA Style

Emma Willard. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 05:51, May 19, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/emma-willard-9531676.

Harvard Style

Emma Willard. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/emma-willard-9531676 [Accessed 19 May 2013].

MLA Style

"Emma Willard." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 19 2013, 05:51 http://www.biography.com/people/emma-willard-9531676.

MHRA Style

"Emma Willard," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/emma-willard-9531676 [accessed May 19, 2013].

Chicago Style

"Emma Willard," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/emma-willard-9531676 (accessed May 19, 2013).

CBE/CSE Style

Emma Willard [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 19] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/emma-willard-9531676.

Bluebook Style

Emma Willard, http://www.biography.com/people/emma-willard-9531676 (last visited May 19, 2013).

AMA Style

Emma Willard. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/emma-willard-9531676. Accessed May 19, 2013.

Synopsis

Emma Hart Willard (1787–1870) was the daughter of a farmer who encouraged her to read and learn, and eventually become a teacher. In 1807 she headed a female academy in Vermont. Willard's proposal for greater education for girls was positively received by the authorities of the day. In 1821 she opened her own school for girls in Troy, New York. The Emma Willard School is still going strong today.

Profile

Educator. Born Emma Hart on February 23, 1787, in Berlin, Connecticut. Emma Willard is remembered for her trailblazing efforts on behalf of women??s education. Raised by a father who, while a farmer, encouraged her to read and think for herself, she attended a local academy from 1802 to 1804 and then began teaching.

In 1807 Emma Willard went to Middlebury, Vermont to head a female academy there. Two years later she married a local doctor named John Willard. She opened her own school, the Middlebury Female Seminary, in 1814 to provide advanced education that young women were denied by colleges. Her Address... Proposing a Plan for Improving Female Education (1819) was a much admired and influential proposal to get public support for advanced education for young women.

Emma Willard moved to Troy, New York, in 1821, where she opened the Troy Female Seminary. (It was renamed the Emma Willard School in 1895.) With both boarding and day students, in some respects it was the first U.S. institution of serious learning for young women, though even it recognized that most of its graduates would be housewives, not professionals, and most of its students came from families of means. The school actually made a profit, and she also earned money from the textbooks she wrote. (She also wrote poetry; only ??Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep?? remains known.)

After her husband died in 1825, Emma Willard remained at school until 1838. Her son and daughter-in-law took over management of the school for her. She had a disastrous second marriage and was separated within nine months. Her later years were spent in traveling to promote education for women, and she returned to Troy in 1844. She died in 1871.