Born: April 4, 1802,
Hampden, Maine
Died: July 17, 1887,
Trenton, New Jersey
There was no more "witch doctoring" about treating mental disturbances than there was about nursing Bob's leg fracture ...
--From Cherry Ames, At Hilton Hospital, p. 76
A philanthropist and social reformer, Dorothea Lynde Dix was a pioneer for the humane treatment of the mentally ill.
Highlights
About 1820, Dorothea Dix established a school for girls in Boston and served as its head for the next fifteen years.
After visiting prisons in Massachusetts in 1841 and finding the insane jailed with common criminals, she worked to improve conditions in almshouses and prisons.
Learn about women's roles during the American Civil War. Available from A&E/History Channel: Civil War Journal: Women at War.
In 1843, she asked the Massachusetts legislature for reforms to end inhumane conditions; her efforts eventually resulted in the founding of special facilities for the insane and destitute in the United States, Canada, and Europe.
In 1861, during the American Civil War, Dorothea Dix served as superintendent of women nurses for the Union army; initially she accepted as nurses only women over age thirty, plain, and of good moral character.
Asylum, Prison, and Poorhouse: The Writings and Reform Work of Dorothea Dix in Illinois (David L. Lightner, ed.). Southern Illinois University Press, 1999. [Available at Amazon.com]
Schlaifer, Charles. Heart's Work: Civil War Heroine and Champion of the Mentally Ill, Dorothea Lynde Dix. New York: Paragon House, 1991. [Available at Amazon.com]
Schleichert, Elizabeth. The Life of Dorothea Dix. Twenty-first Century Books, 1991. [Available at Amazon.com]
Snyder, Charles M., ed. The Lady and the President: The Letters of Dorothea Dix and Millard Fillmore. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1975. [Available at Amazon.com]
Tiffany, Francis. Life of Dorothea Lynde Dix. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Plutarch Press, 1971. [Available at Amazon.com]
Wilson, Dorothy Clarke. Stranger and Traveler: The Story of Dorothea Dix, American Reformer. Boston: Little, Brown, 1975. [Available at Amazon.com]
Dorothea Dix: Advocate for the Mentally Ill
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