A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Willard, Emma
WILLARD, EMMA,
Distinguished both as a teacher and writer, has for many years held a prominent position among those who encourage and aid American literature and moral improvement.
This lady is the daughter of the late Samuel Hart, of Berlin, Connecticut, where she was born in February, 1787. Her father was descended, on the maternal side, from Thomas Hooker, the first minister of Hartford, who is regarded as the founder of the State of Connecticut; he having lead the colony across the wilderness from the vicinity of Boston. Her paternal ancestor was Stephen Hart, a deacon of Mr. Hooker's church and his companion through the wilderness.
The love of teaching appears to have been a ruling passion in Miss Hart's mind, and was developed in her early years. At the age of sixteen she took charge of a district school in her native town. The following year she opened a select school, and in the summer of the next year was placed at the head of the Berlin Academy. During this period, being engaged at home throughout the summer in the capacity of instructress, she managed in the spring and autumn to attend one or other of the two boarding schools at Hartford.
During the spring of 1807, Miss Hart received invitations to take charge of academies in three different states, and accepted that from Westfield, Massachusetts. She remained there but a few weeks, when, upon a second and more pressing invitation, she went to Middlebury, in Vermont. Here she assumed the charge of a female academy, which she retained for two years. The school was liberally patronized, and general satisfaction rewarded the efforts of its preceptress. In 1809, she resigned her academy, and was united in marriage with Dr. John Willard, then marshal of the district of Vermont, and for several years a leader of the republican party of that State.
In 1814, Mrs. Willard was induced to establish a boarding-school at Middlebury, when she formed the determination to effect an important change in female education, by the institution of a class of schools of a higher character than had been established in the country before. She applied herself assiduously to increase her own personal abilities as a teacher, by the diligent study of branches with which she had before been unacquainted. She introduced new studies into her school, and invented new methods of teaching. She also prepared "An Address to the Public," in which she proposed "A Plan for Improving Female Education."
This plan met with the approval of Governor de Witt Clinton, who wrote to Mrs. Willard, expressing a most cordial desire that she would remove her institution to the State of New York. He also recommended the subject of her "Plan" in his message to the legislature. The result was, the passage of an act to incorporate the proposed institute at Waterford, and another to give to female academies a share of the literary fund; being, it is believed, the first law ever passed by any legislature with the direct object of improving female education.
During the spring of 1819, Mrs. Willard accordingly removed to Waterford, and opened her school. The higher mathematics were introduced, and the course of study was made sufficiently complete to qualify the pupils for any station in life. The first young lady who was examined publicly in geometry, and perhaps the first instance in the country, was Miss Cramer, since Mrs. Curtis.
In the spring of 1821, difficulties attended the securing of a proper building for the school in Waterford, Mrs. Willard again determined upon a removal. The public-spirited citizens of Troy offered liberal inducements; and in May, 1821, the Troy Female Seminary was opened under flattering auspices, and abundant success crowned her indefatigable exertions. Since that period, the institute has been well known to the public, and the name of Mrs. Willard, for more than a quarter of a century, has been identified with her favourite academy. Dr. Willard died in 1825; Mrs. Willard continued her school till her health was impaired, and in 1830 she visited France. She resided in Paris for several months, and from thence came to England and Scotland, returning in the following year. After her return, she published a volume of her travels, the avails of which, amounting to twelve hundred dollars, were devoted to the cause of female education in Greece. It may be proper to add, that she gave the avails of one or two other publications to the same object. The plan of the school for the education of native teachers in Greece originated with Mrs. Willard, and was carried forward through many difficulties and some opposition from those whose aid was expected. Often desponding as to the final result of the attempt, Mrs. Willard laboured but the more zealously, and gave largely of her own substance to secure the desired advantages for Greece. The plan was ultimately crowned with success.
In 1838, Mrs. Willard resigned the charge of the Troy Seminary, and returned to Hartford, where she revised her celebrated Manual of American History, for the use of schools. The merits of this work, her smaller United States History, and Universal History, have been attested by their very general use in seminaries of education.
Since 1843, she has completed the revision of her historical works, revised her Ancient Geography, and, in compliance with invitations, has written numerous addresses on different occasions, being mostly on educational subjects. Two of these were written by request of the Western Literary Institute and College of Teachers, and were read at annual meetings of the society, at Cincinnati; one in 1841, and the other in 1843. In 1845, by special invitation, she attended the convention of county and town superintendents, held at Syracuse. She was invited to take part in the public debate; declining that honour, the gentlemen of the convention, to the number of about sixty, called on her at her lodgings, where she read to them a prepared address. The principal topic of it was, "that women, now sufficiently educated, should be employed and furnished by the men as committees, charged with the minute cares and supervision of the common schools;" reasoning from the premises that to man it belongs to provide for the children, while upon woman it is incumbent to take the provision, and apply it economically and judiciously. These sentiments were received with decided approbation.
In the fall of the same year, 1845, Mrs. Willard made, with great satisfaction, an educational tour through some of the southern counties of New York; having been specially invited to attend the institutions for the improvement of teachers of the common schools. At Monticello, Binghampton, Owego, Cairo, and Rome, she aided in instructing no less than five hundred teachers of these schools, and, in many cases, her partings with the young female teachers were not without tears.
In the ensuing winter of 1846, Mrs. Willard prepared for the press a work which has given her more fame abroad, and perhaps at home, than any of her other writings. This work, which was published in the ensuing spring, both in London and New York, developed the result of a study which has intensely occupied her at times for fourteen years. Its title is, "A Treatise on the Motive Powers which produce the Circulation of the Blood;" and its object is nothing less than to introduce and to establish the fact, that the principal motive power which produces circulation of the blood is not, as has been heretofore supposed, the heart's action, that being only secondary; but that the principal motive power is respiration, operating by animal heat, and producing an effective force at the lungs.
During the spring and summer of 1846, Mrs. Willard made the tour of the southern and western states, visiting every one of them except Texas. In every city she met her former pupils, who gave her a filial welcome. She was received by the principals of schools and those employed in education as an "educationalist;" and as such, was invited to visit and to address schools, where, in many instances, she received public testimonials of consideration.
In addition to the compends of history which she has written, she has invented, for the purpose of teaching and impressing chronology on the mind by the eye, two charts of an entirely original character; one called "The American Chronographic for American History," and the other for universal history, called the "Temple of Time." In the latter, the course of time from the creation of the world is thrown into perspective, and the parts of this vast subject wrought into unity, and the most distinguished characters which have appeared in the world are set down, each in his own time. This, in the chart, is better arranged for the memory, than would be that of the place of a city on a map of the world.
In 1849, she published "Last Leaves from American History;" containing an interesting account of the Mexican War, and of California.
The poetical compositions of Mrs. Willard are few, and are chiefly comprised in a small volume, printed in 1830.