Daughter of a Un­i­tar­i­an min­is­ter, Will­ard joined the Epis­co­pal de­nom­in­a­tion. She is best known as a cham­pi­on of wo­men’s ed­u­ca­tion. Her works in­clude:

• An Ad­dress to the Pub­lic, Par­tic­u­lar­ly to the Mem­bers of the Le­gis­la­ture of New York, Pro­pos­ing a Plan for Im­prov­ing Fe­male Ed­u­ca­tion, 1819
• A Sys­tem of Un­i­vers­al Ge­o­graphy on the Prin­ci­ples of Com­par­i­son and Class­i­fi­ca­tion, 1822
• A Sys­tem of Un­i­vers­al His­to­ry in Per­spect­ive, 1837
• Temple of Time (won a gold me­dal at the 1850 World’s Fair in Lon­don)
• The Ful­fill­ment of a Prom­ise, by which Po­ems by Em­ma Will­ard Are Pub­lished
• A Trea­tise on the Mo­tive Pow­ers Which Pro­duce the Cir­cu­la­tion of the Blood, 1846
• Universal Peace, 1864

1. Rocked in the Cra­dle of the Deep