Explanatory Note
Reading edition
Timely interest in the enclosed pamphlet written by Emma Willard, pioneer in the education of women at Middlebury, Vermont, over 100 years ago, is given by the fact that Mrs. Russell Sage, who was a great admirer of the work of Mrs. Willard, has just left to Middlebury College the sum of $100,000.
The Middlebury Register in its issue of November 22, 1918, contains the following interesting statement by Dr. Ezra Brainerd, president-emeritus of the College, indicating how Mrs. Sage became interested in Middlebury:
“About thirty years ago I received an invitation to give a talk on the life and work of Emma Willard during the twelve years she lived in Middlebury when from 20 to 32 years of age. This talk was to be given before the Emma Willard Association in New York City, at the home on Fifth Avenue of Mrs. Russell Sage, who was the President of the Association. I met there an interesting company who held in high esteem the mature matron under whose guidance they had graduated from the famous Ladies Seminary in Troy. It was not difficult to interest them in an account of Emma Willard’s early life and of her confessed indebtedness to Middlebury College for her advanced views regarding the higher education of women. I succeeded in securing $2000 for an Emma Willard scholarship in Middlebury College. The following year came an invitation to address them again, and to publish a pamphlet containing the substance of my talks. This was done at the expense of a New York lawyer, a former pupil of mine, whose mother in Vermont was a graduate of the Troy Seminary. The pamphlet passed through two editions of 500 copies each, most of which were placed in the hands of Mrs. Sage for distribution to the graduates of the Troy Seminary.
“This pamphlet was later republished by the United States Bureau of Education, Circular of Information No. 4, 1900; whole number 265. On page 130, under the headline of the article, the reader is informed that it was ‘prepared originally for the Emma Willard Society of New York by Ezra Brainerd, LL. D., President of Middlebury College.’
“Thus it would appear probable that the 100,000 dollar bequest is the fair fruitage of the humble seed sown in faith so many years ago.”