History of EWS

Works About Emma Hart Willard School

Gilligan, Carol, Nona Lyons, Trudy J. Hanmer, eds. Making Connections: the relational worlds of adolescent girls at Emma Willard School. Troy, NY : Emma Willard School, 1989.

Lay, Clemewell and Anne Wellington. Emma Willard Plan of Education. Troy: Emma Willard School, 1961. (Lengthy discussion of all aspects of the School from the 1940s into the 1960s by its co-headmistresses during that period. Focuses on the integrated curriculum.)

LaFarge, Phyllis. "A Warmhearted Guide to Certain Girls' Schools." Harper's Magazine, 226 (April 1963), pp. 73-99.

McNamee, Dardis. "What Do Young Women Want?" Capital Region Magazine, (March 1989), 51+.

Potwine, Elizabeth B. Faithfully Yours, Eliza Kellas. Troy: Emma Willard School, 1960. (Early history of the School; concentrates on the administration of its sixth head, Eliza Kellas.)

Prose, Francine. "Confident at 11, Confused at 16." New York Times Magazine, (January 7, 1990), 22+.

Scott, Anne Firor. "The Ever-Widening Circle: The Diffusion of Feminist Values from the Troy Female Seminary, 1822-1872." History and Education Quarterly, 19 (Spring 1979), pp. 3-25.

__________. "What, Then, is the American: This New Woman?" Journal of American History, LXV, 3 (Dec. 1978), pp. 679-703.

* Steinberg, Jane. "The Boarding School Mystique." Mademoiselle, 63 (May 1966), 176+.

Taylor, James Monroe. Before Vassar Opened. Boston: 1914.

When Emma Hart Willard first established her school in Troy, 90 girls from around the country were enrolled in math, science, history, foreign language, and literature courses. Willard herself not only served as instructor, she wrote a number of textbooks used at her school and throughout America.