Portrait of Emma Willard Emma Willard, founder of the famed and rigorous Troy Female Seminary, was an exemplary role model to her students. Elizabeth Cady, a student in the 1830s and later an important figure in the woman’s rights movement, recalled that Willard had a “profound self respect (a rare quality in a woman) which gave her a dignity truly regal.” Her confidence shines through in this portrait. The Granger Collection, New York.