Emma Willard

Emma Willard ( Birth name: Emma Hart ) (* February 23, 1787 in Berlin, Connecticut, † April 15, 1870 in Troy, New York) was an American educator and pioneer in the field of higher education for women and coeducation in USA.

Life

The daughter of the businessman and politician Samuel Hart received her education at schools in Berlin and Hartford and then took in 1803 at the age of sixteen to work as a teacher on. Having worked at various schools as Rector, she took over the management of an educational institution in Middlebury and married there in 1809 the doctor and banker and former U.S. Marshal of Vermont, Dr. John Willard.

1814 opened with the help of her husband, a boarding school for girls in Middlebury, where they introduced subjects of geometry and philosophy, who were not taught in girls at that time. In addition, they also ran numerous changes in the then usual teaching methods. There you resolve grew to found a seminary for the higher education of girls and wrote this in 1818 in a treatise on the education of women ( Treatise on the Education of Women), which they called letter addressed in 1819 to the House of Representatives from Vermont and on the Emma Willard in Troy Memorial as The Magna Carta for Higher Education of Women in America is called.

Still in 1819 she opened a school in Waterford, which was recognized and supported by the Government of the State of New York. 1821 twisted to Troy, where her an adequate building was made ​​available to found the Troy Female Seminary, Emma Willard School today. After the death of her husband in 1825, she led the successful schools founded by her on alone.

In 1830 she made a trip to Europe and then published Journal and Letters from France and Great Britain (1833 ), whose sales proceeds donated it for a founded on their own initiative school in Greece, were formed at the local women as teachers. In this project, she worked with, among others, with her younger sister Almira Lincoln Phelps, Sarah Josepha Hale and Lydia Sigourney.

After she had in 1838 passed the management of the educational institutions founded by her to her son John Hart Willard and his wife, married in 1838 to Dr. Christopher Yates, of which she, however, was already divorced in 1843 and adopted its present name again.

In the years before her death, she lived in Troy and dealt there with the revision of numerous textbooks and public relations for higher education. 1846 she took an extended trip through the Western States and southern United States to give speeches at meetings of teachers. In 1854 she was one of the participants in a global Education Forum in London.

Emma Willard, which is regarded as a pioneer in the field of higher education for women in the U.S., taught even in the course of their professional career around 5000 school children. By enforcing the same subjects for girls they ultimately created the foundations for community education of girls and boys in the United States.

Publications

In addition to her own teaching, she has written numerous, widespread school books on subjects such as history, geography, biology, astronomy, which have been translated into several European and Asian languages ​​. Her major publications include:

  • The Woodbridge and Willard Geographies and Atlases, Comprising a universal geography and atlas, a school geography and atlas, in ancient geography and atlas, geography for beginners, and atlas (1823 )
  • History of the United States, or Republic of America (New York, 1828)
  • Universal History in Perspective (1837 )
  • Treatise on the Circulation of the Blood (1846 )
  • Respiration and its effects, particularly as respects Asiatic Cholera (1849 )
  • Last Leaves of American History (1849 )
  • Astronomy (1853 )
  • Morals for the Young ( 1857)

In addition to numerous articles and essays but they also wrote poems like " reeked in the Cradle of the Deep ", which appeared in 1830 in an anthology.

Honors

Emma Willard was honored, among others, by his posthumous induction into the Hall of Fame for Great Americans in New York City.

Your residence in Middlebury, which is now used as an administration building for the Middlebury College, is one under the name of Emma Willard House to the National Historic Landmarks in Vermont.

Background literature

  • John Lord: The Life of Emma Willard (New York, 1873)

External links and sources

  • Famous Americans
  • Chambers Biographical Dictionary, pp. 1603, Edinburgh 2002, ISBN 0-550-10051-2
  • Teacher
  • Pedagogue
  • Feminist
  • Author
  • Literature (19th century)
  • Literature ( English )
  • Literature (United States)
  • Non-fiction
  • Poetry
  • Americans
  • Born in 1787
  • Died in 1870
  • Woman
Berlin (Connecticut) Troy (New York) Hartford (Connecticut) Middlebury (Vermont) Physician Lyric poetry List of National Historic Landmarks in Vermont Integrated Authority File
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