By: Saarah Amin

Dorothea Dix

Dorthea Dix was born on April 4th, 1802.

She was born in Hampden, Maine.

At age 12, she fled from her alcoholic and abusive family. She went

to go live with her wealthy grandmother.

When she was 14, she opened her own school and began to teach

there.

She is most famous for the prison reform.

Birth and Childhood

In 1841 Dorothea Dix went to investigate state prisons.

She found that mentally ill people were held in cages or

small prison cells. They were beaten and were given

tattered clothes to wear. Most of them were chained to the

walls or to the floor.

Prison Reform

In 1848, Dorothea Dix traveled to North Carolina. She gave a

speech on how mentally ill people were treated. In her speech

she stated that mentally ill people should be cared for and not

treated like animals.

The people of North Carolina created a hospital for the mentally

ill people. They named it The Dorothea Dix Hospital in her honor.

The Dorothea Dix Hospital

Dorothea Dix was in charge of hiring the nurses to care

for the wounded men from the Civil War. The nurses had to

be between the ages of 35 to 50. They had to wear plain

black or brown dresses and were not allowed to wear any

kind of jewelry. She would often fire the untrained nurses,

or nurses that she didn’t hire herself.

The Civil War

Dorothea Dix moved into The New Jersey State Hospital in 1881, 4

years before her death.

The hospital gave her a private suite which she could live in as

long as she lived.

She died on July 17th, 1887. She died when she was 85 years old.

She was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge

Massachusetts.

Death

In 1983, the United States Postal Office created a 1 cent

stamp in her honor.

The Dorothea Dix Hospital was named in her honor.

Honors

Bio.com. A&E Networks Television. Web. 28 Feb. 2012.

<http://www.biography.com>.

"Us History." Us History. Web. 28 Feb. 2012. <http://www.u-shistory.com>.

Citations