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Birth
Born in
Hampden, ME
Parents: Joseph Dix & Mary Bigelow -
Moving
Dorothea's family had to move. They moved to Vermont because their town was invaded by the British in the war of 1812. -
Opening a school
Dorothea Dix opened a school in Boston in 1821. This school was for children of wealthy parents. She used to teach poor and neglected children in her free time. However, she also began to suffer from poor health which affected her teaching. -
"Conversations on Common Things’"
When she was not well enough to teach, she would remain in her room and write textbooks and devotional books for children. Her book ‘Conversations on Common Things’ was published in 1824. -
Back At It Again
For the next five years she continued teaching but by the end of 1836 she began to feel very ill. Her health was so poor that she had to quit teaching and go to England to recuperate. -
East Cambridge Prison
She returned to America in 1841 and took a job of teaching inmates in an East Cambridge prison. She was shocked by what she saw there—the mentally unstable were kept with the hardened criminals, there was no heating, the place was stinking and the living conditions were horrible. -
Studies
Dorothea decided to travel to Illinois to study mental illness. -
Traveling
She traveled to Louisiana where also she studied the conditions of the lunatics. She went to several states to research on the mental illnesses and the ways the patients were treated. She convinced the Legislation of Illinois to set up the state’s first mental hospital.
She went to North Carolina and influenced the forming of the North Carolina State Medical Society in 1849. -
Nursing
Shortly after her arrival in Washington in April 1861, she was appointed to organize and outfit the Union Army hospitals and to oversee the vast nursing staff that the war would require. As superintendent of women nurses, she was the first woman to serve in such a high capacity in a federally appointed role. -
The Civil War
With supplies pouring in from voluntary societies across the north, Dix’s administrative skills were sorely needed to manage the flow of bandages and clothing as the war wore on. Still, Dix often clashed with army officials and was widely feared and disliked by her volunteer female nurses. After months of hard work and exhaustion, she was eventually ousted from her position, stripped of authority by the fall of 1863 and sent home -
Resigning
She was not much successful in this position and found herself at odds with several parties like the Army doctors. She resigned in 1865. -
Death
Dorothea Dix died in 1887 at the age of 85 in a New Jersey hospital that had been established in her honor. She is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
