Emma Hart Willard (1787 – 1870) was a women’s rights activist who dedicated her life to education. Preceptress at Vermont’s Middlebury Female Academy as a teenager, she founded Troy Female Seminary in 1814, the first school for women’s higher education (renamed Emma Willard School in 1895).
Willard produced bestselling textbooks from the 1820s to the 1850s and remains one of the best-known and most influential educators of the nineteenth century.
Vermont Historical Society is hosting the presentation “The Graphic Reach of Emma Willard” by Susan Schulten, a continuation of their Third Thursday program, set for Thursday, March 18th. Beginning at noon, Schulten will look at Willard’s visual and graphic influence, focusing on her own education as well as her role in reaching generations thereafter.
To register for the program, click here.
According to the school’s history, the 1st location in New York of Emma Willard’s school was Waterford. The formation of the private Troy Women’s Seminary was not until after the New York State legislature rejected her proposal for state funding of a school for the education of women. The 1st campus was in downtown Troy where Russell Sage college is located today.
Thank You, Pat FOR CORRECTING THAT ~ YOU “BEAT ME TO IT.”