Mabel smith douglass biography of william butler

Conflicting versions of this story exist, so the tale of the Lady in the Lake should be read as speculation surrounding an unsolved mystery, not indisputable fact. There are few places more beautiful or serene than Lake Placid, but in , the 5. Mabel Smith Douglass was one of the most successful women of her time, having broken through the glass ceiling to create and serve as the inaugural dean of the New Jersey College for Women at Rutgers.

The school would later be called Douglass College. While her professional life soared, though, Douglass's personal life began to sink.

Douglass attended public school in Jersey City.

Her husband met an untimely death in , and her son committed suicide six years later. Douglass entered a mental health facility after having a nervous breakdown, and emerged a year later. Douglass's family owned a house on Lake Placid, Camp Onondoga, and her daughter brought Douglass there for a mental reprieve after leaving the mental health facility.

On September 21, , the ladies had packed up the camp for the season, and planned to return to New Jersey the next day. After telling her daughter she was going to collect leaves for decoration, Douglass launched the family boat into the water. She paddled for two miles, and wasn't seen again for 30 years. On September 15, , a group of scuba divers was exploring the area of Lake Placid near Pulpit Rock, one of the deepest points of the lake.

Approximately feet below the surface, the first two divers - Richard Niffenegger and Jimmy Rogers - saw an erie white mannequin.

The papers of Mabel Smith Douglass document the life and career of a prolific educator, who worked to gain educational equality for women in the early twentieth g: william butler.

Upon further inspection, and to their great surprise, the divers realized the figure was not a mannequin, but the preserved corpse of a woman. The pair noticed that a pound anchor was tied to the corpse's neck with a short rope. When they tried to bring the body to the surface, though, the woman's facial features disintigrated, and her arms and head fell off.