1802-1887

“IN A WORLD WITH SO MUCH TO BE DONE, I FELT STRONGLY IMPRESSED THAT THERE MUST BE

SOMETHING FOR ME TO DO.”

Dorothea Dix

Early Life

Born in Hampden MaineUnstable household with mentally ill mother and abusive father

Taught herself and younger siblings to read and write, which developed into passion for teaching

Teaching

At age 15, in 1816 opened own school, ran this school for three years

Later opened school in the Dix Mansion, one part for poor girls and one part for wealthy girls

1841 taught Sunday School to women in the East Cambridge County Jail

Seeing the jail showed her how the mentally ill were treated like any other prisoner and she wanted to change this

Started by visiting jails all over Massachusetts were they mentally ill were

Collected data and made document for the Massachusetts legislature to changed how mentally ill were treated

Won support and money for expansion of the Worcester State Hospital to help the mentally ill

Social Reformer

World wide reform

Dorothea next traveled to other states and repeated the reform process

Next she traveled all around Europe to help reform their jails as well

In all Dorothea Dix help to found 32 mental hospitals, 15 schools for the feeble minded, 1 school for the blind, and many training facilities to train the nurses

She is said to be “the most effective advocate of humanitarian reform in American mental institutions during the nineteenth century” (Golden, 1970)

Bibliography

Dorothea Dix by Jenn Bumb webster.edu/~woolflm/dorotheadix.html

Dorothea Dix quotes thinkexist.com/uotes/dorothea_dix/

Dorothea Dix Social Issues, 1802-1887 by Online Highways LLC nursingadvocacy.org/press/pioneers/dix.html