Dorothea DixDorothea Dix

By Allie Piacenti & Becca MacLean

“If I am cold, they are cold; if I am weary, they are distressed; if I am

alone, they are abandoned.”

Early Life

• Born April 4, 1802 in Hampden, Maine

• Father was an abusive alcoholic and her mother was in poor mental health

• Went to live with her Grandmother at age 12

• Began teaching classes for girls at age 15

“ I never knew childhood.”

Accomplishments

• Published several books for children and their parents. Ex. Conversations on Common Things (1824)

• Taught Sunday School class for women inmates at East Cambridge Jail

• 1843- Proposed a plan to the MA legislature for improvement of facilities for mentally ill (passed)

• Opened 32 mental hospitals, 15 schools for the feeble-minded, a school for the blind, and numerous training facilities for nurses“I tell what I have seen.”

Accomplishments (cont.)

• Helped to establish libraries in mental hospitals, prisons, and more

• Traveled throughout 13 European countries in 2 years and fought for the mentally ill there after failing to pass a federal land plot in the US

• 1845- published Remarks on Prisons and Prison Discipline in the United States to advocate for change in the treatments of ordinary prisoners

• Named Superintendent of the Union Army Nurses“Some say these things cannot be

remedied… I know they are.”

Effects• Met with Pope Pius IX and

influenced him to make a series of improvements in Rome

• Influenced a bill for the enlargement of the Worcester Insane Asylum

• 1881- her efforts contributed to opening the state hospital in Trenton, NJ

• Inspired legislators in 15 states and Canada to establish hospitals for the mentally ill

• US nursing pioneer“There are few cases in history where a social movement of such proportions can be attributed to the work of a single individual.” ~ Kovach

Final Efforts

• Ill health throughout her entire life and her travels

• Admitted herself into the Trenton Hospital that she helped found

• Remained there for 6 years until her death on July 17, 1887

Dix was “the most effective advocate of humanitarian reform in American mental institutions during the nineteenth century.” ~Goldenson

Bibliography

• Primary:• Dix, Dorothea Lynde. Remarks on Prisons and Prison Discipline in the United

States. [Whitefish, MT]: Kessinger, 2007. Print.• "Memorial to the Massachusetts Legislature (1843)." Eca.state.gov/. Web. 05

Apr. 2011. <http://eca.state.gov/education/engteaching/pubs/AmLnC/br15.htm>.

• Secondary: • "Dorothea Dix." NNDB: Tracking the Entire World. Web. 05 Apr. 2011.

<http://www.nndb.com/people/415/000115070/>. • "Dorothea Dix." United States History. Web. 05 Apr. 2011. <http://www.u-s-

history.com/pages/h1092.html>.• "Dorothea Dix." Webster University. Web. 05 Apr. 2011.

<http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/dorotheadix.html>.• Reddi, Vasantha. "Biography of Dorothea Lynde Dix." The Center for Nursing

Advocacy. Web. 05 Apr. 2011. <http://www.nursingadvocacy.org/press/pioneers/dix.html>.