Douglass will mark its 100th anniversary Sept. 22 with a daytime colloquium and campus night celebration

Rutgers Today, Rutgers News - Douglass Celebrates Its Centennial
Douglass started as the vision of the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs, which sought to create the state’s first public women’s college
Photo: Nick Romanenko / Rutgers University

One hundred years ago today, Douglass opened its doors for its first class of 54 women, with only 12 books in its library at a time when its students didn’t even have the right to vote.

Founded in 1918 as the New Jersey College for Women, Douglass started as the vision of the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs, which sought to create the state’s first public women’s college as part of Rutgers University.

Mabel Smith Douglass negotiated major donations from donors James Neilson; Leonor Loree and Elizabeth Voorhees; lobbied the state legislature for a $100,000 subsidy; and led a door-to-door, $1 subscription campaign. Rutgers trustees passed a resolution to establish the women’s college of New Jersey in the spring of 1918 in response to her efforts. The college was renamed Douglass College in 1955, then Douglass Residential College in 2007. Today, Douglass is a diverse community of 2,600 undergraduate women scholars and over 39,000 alumnae.

Douglass will celebrate its anniversary with a daytime colloquium and campus night celebration on Saturday, Sept. 22. Called the Power of 100 Years: Douglass Centennial Celebration, it will feature panel discussions that highlight the college’s diversity and explore the history of African-American, Jewish and Puerto Rican students at Douglass.

The original curriculum went well beyond the traditional model of women's education, which focused largely on preparing women for motherhood, domestic life and ethics. Home economics courses demanded significant scientific prowess – creating a legacy of strong science programs and with many alumnae entering the sciences. The curriculum was innovative because it also brought liberal arts, in the tradition of Rutgers College, to students in the New Jersey College for Women.

Some of college’s groundbreaking alumnae include Julia Baxter Bates, the first African-American woman accepted by the college in 1934. She graduated magna cum laude in English and later served as the national director of research and information for the NAACP, coauthoring the winning brief in Brown v. the Board of Education.

Douglass is credited with building the foundation for many successful programs at Rutgers that explore women's and gender studies. The Institute for Women’s Leadership at Rutgers, a consortium of nine units each advancing research and applications of feminist work, started at Douglass. The School of Arts and Sciences Department of Women's and Gender Studies, among the top five departments in the country, also began at the college. The Department of History in the School of Arts and Sciences is also one of the highest ranked in the nation for women’s and gender history. The national feminist art movement also has its roots at Douglass.