Happy Birthday, Mabel Smith Douglass!

Mabel Smith Douglass (1877–1933) was a remarkable educator, shrewd tactician, and one of the most successful women of her generation. At a time when women had limited rights and opportunities, Douglass became the first dean of the New Jersey College for Women, breaking the glass ceiling and paving the way for women to pursue higher education in the state. Active in the women's rights movement, she empowered young women, fought inequality, and created more open access to education. To honor Douglass's contributions to the university, Rutgers named Douglass College, the Douglass campus, and Mabel Smith Douglass Library in her memory.

Born Anna Mabel Smith on February 11, 1877, in Jersey City, New Jersey, she graduated from Jersey City High School (later Dickinson High School) in 1895 and Barnard College in 1899. She taught in New York City for several years and married William Shipman Douglass, a New York commission merchant, in 1903. The Douglasses had two children, Edith and William.

In 1911, the New Jersey State Federation of Women's Clubs launched a campaign to establish a women's college as part of Rutgers University and convinced Douglass to spearhead the effort. Thanks to Douglass's unyielding determination and skillful guidance, the New Jersey College for Women garnered enough financial and institutional support to open its doors in 1918. Douglass was appointed its first dean and served until 1932. Under her leadership, the college grew from 54 students to over 1,000, becoming one of the largest women's colleges in the East. In 1955, the college was renamed Douglass College to acknowledge her instrumental role in shaping women's education and leadership at Rutgers.

While Douglass experienced much success in her career, her personal life was filled with tragedy. She lost her husband and son to untimely deaths. Shortly after retiring, Douglass went missing while rowing on Lake Placid on September 21, 1933. The unexplained circumstances surrounding her disappearance made her even more legendary in death, inspiring two books and countless tales of the supernatural. Three decades had passed before her body was discovered at the bottom of the lake by divers. Although her death was officially ruled accidental, there is speculation she may have committed suicide, further perpetuating the age-old mystery and mystical stories.

In A Lady in the Lake, a rather sensationalized account of Douglass's disappearance and death, author George Ortloff wrote, "In the final analysis, whether Mrs. Douglass's death was an accident—as the coroner ruled—or a suicide, doesn't matter. What really matters is that she was born and lived for 56 years before that last day of summer on which she died, and that in the interim, she left the world a better place for having passed through it."

The Douglass Campus and Douglass Residential College

The Douglass campus is located in Rutgers–New Brunswick. It is home to Douglass Residential College (DRC), many School of Arts and Sciences academic departments, including anthropology, religion, French, Spanish, and Portuguese, as well as Eagleton Institute of Politics and Institute for Women's Leadership.

DRC is the only college for women in the nation that is nested within a world-class public research university. It prepares undergraduate women for success in an increasingly diverse, competitive, and global public arena. Courses offered focus on leadership, community service, and political change. To learn more about DRC, please visit douglass.rutgers.edu and read The Douglass Century: Transformation of the Women's College at Rutgers University, written by Rutgers scholars Kayo Denda, Mary Hawkesworth, and Fernanda Perrone and published by Rutgers University Press. This publication is available at our libraries and online at this link.

Mabel Smith Douglass Library

The Mabel Smith Douglass Library, also located on the Douglass campus, has a primary collection focus on women's, gender, and sexuality studies. It is also home to the Performing Arts Library and the New Brunswick Libraries media collection. Please visit libraries.rutgers.edu/douglass for more information.

More About Mabel Smith Douglass

• Reflections on Mabel Smith Douglass and Douglass College by Professor Mary Hawkesworth
• The History of Mabel Smith Douglass by the Rutgers University Television Network (RU-tv)