Educated at Worthington Point district school and the Berlin Academy, Willard began a teaching career and in 1807 moved to Vermont to become the preceptress of Middlebury Female Academy. In 1809, she married Dr. John Willard, a man who shared her views on female education. After her husband suffered financial difficulties, she opened the Middlebury Female Seminary in her home. In 1819, she moved the school to Waterford, New York and then to Troy in 1821 where she received financial support from the town. Willard wrote many of the textbooks used in the school. Her husband died in 1825, but Willard continued to manage the school until 1838. She toured Europe in 1830 and helped to found a school for women in Athens, Greece. She re-married in 1838, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1843. Her works include The Woodbridge and Willard Geographies and Atlases (1823), History of the United States (1828), Journal and Letters From France and Great Britain (1833), Universal History in Perspective (1837), Treatise on the Circulation of the Blood (1846), Last Leaves of American History (1849), Late American History (1856) and Via Media (1862).
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