Emma Hart Willard and Amira Hart Lincoln Phelps are two names that are associated with Troy, but are admired in education circles throughout the country.

In 1807, Emma Hart (1787-1870), a young Connecticut woman, and the next-to-last of 17 children, began her life long work to bring women equal access to education. This was a time in history when women were not allowed in college, but rather were confined to female academies that specialized in classes "suitable" for girls.

Her success in teaching in Connecticut prompted her to write An Address to the Public; Particularly to the Members of the Legislature of New-York, Proposing a Plan for Improving Female Education, in 1819. The NY Legislature didn't do anything (some members thought she was crazy), but the pamphlet was noticed by Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.

Also impressed was Governor DeWitt Clinton who invited Willard (Hart married John Willard, a physician in 1809) to open a school in New York State. In 1819, she opened a school in Waterford. However, several of Troy's visionaries convinced the city fathers to raise $4,000 in taxes to begin construction of a school for Willard. They purchased the old Coffee house next to the village green between Second, First, and Congress and began renovations. Willard and company moved into the 'Troy Female Seminary' in 1821, and today continues its mission in Troy, 179 years strong.

According to one history, the Seminary was the first such school predating the first public high schools for girls in Boston and NYC by five years and the famous Mary Lyon's Mount Holyoke Seminary by 16 years. It was a pioneer in the teaching of science, mathematics, and social studies and the school attracted students from wealthy families. By 1831, there was an enrollment of over 300 students, with more than 100 boarding there.

However, one of the biggest problems in female education was finding textbooks. All text books at the time were written for men.
So, Emma wrote some of the school's textbooks: History of the United States, or Republic of America (1828), A System of Universal History in Perspective (1835), as well as a volume of poetry, The Fulfillment of a Promise (1831).

Emma headed the college until 1838, by then shaping the future of hundreds of women. She continued to lecture and write including: A Treatise on the Motive Powers Which Produce the Circulation of the Blood (1846), Guide to the Temple of Time; and Universal History for Schools (1849), Last Leaves of American History (1849), Astronography; or Astronomical Geography (1854), and Morals for the Young (1857). She died in Troy in 1870, and the school was renamed for her in 1895. It moved to its existing location in 1910.

Emma's youngest sister Almira Hart also made an impact on female education. She followed Emma's footsteps in her formative years teaching at Berlin Academy, and in 1817, she married Simeon Lincoln, editor of the Connecticut Mirror of Hartford. His death only six years later brought Almira to Troy to teach in her sister's Troy Female Seminary. She stayed for eight years teaching and serving as principal.

While in Troy two people had a great influence - Emma, and Amos Eaton, the founder of RPI and father of American Geology. Eaton introduced her to new methods of teaching called the Pestalozzi method (Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi 1746-1827), based on a Swiss education reformer who advocated educating the poor emphasizing two teaching methods: Instructors should start with simple beginnings and proceed to the complicated, and have a "hands-on" lecture. Most of these principles now are used in modern elementary education.

In 1831, she married Judge John Phelps to become Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps.

Almira implemented both methods into her classrooms in Troy. Almira taught and served as principal at Troy for eight years. During that time she began writing textbooks, like her sister, on botany, natural philosophy (physics), geology, and specifically chemistry. Some of her popular works were: Familiar Lectures on Botany (1829), Dictionary of Chemistry (1830), Botany for Beginners (1833), Chemistry for Beginners (1834), and Familiar Lectures on Chemistry (1838). Her text books were popular and used throughout the United States. In 1859, Almira was the second women ever elected into the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Almira penned a novel Ida Norman in 1848. In 1856, she retired to Baltimore but continued writing for national publications and authored more books: Christian Households (1858), and Hours With My Pupils (1859). At 80, she wrote her last two books, Fruits of Autumn and Preserved in the Winter of Life, both published in 1873. She died in July,1884.

To this day, both Emma and Almira Hart's lasting influence on the education of women is felt around the world.