Dorothea Lynde
Dix April 4, 1802 - July 17, 1887
She was an American activist on behalf of the
indigent insane who, through a vigorous program of lobbying state legislatures
and the United States Congress, created the first generation of American mental
asylums.
She also traveled to Europe and led efforts to improve the care of the insane in England and Scotland.
She conducted a statewide investigation of how her home state of
Massachusetts cared for the insane poor. After her survey, she published the
results in a fiery report, a Memorial, to the state legislature.
"I
proceed, Gentlemen, briefly to call your attention to the present state of
Insane Persons confined within this Commonwealth, in cages, stalls, pens!
Chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience."
The
outcome of her lobbying was a bill to expand the state's mental hospital in
Worcester. She had other positive outcomes to her lobbying for the mentally ill
in North Carolina, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire.
During
the Civil War, she served as Superintendent of Army Nurses. She beat out Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell for the position. Her even-handed
caring for Union and Confederate wounded alike assured her a positive memory in
both the North and the South.
Following
the war, she resumed her crusade to improve the care of prisoners, the
disabled, and the mentally ill. Her first step was to review the asylums and
prisons in the South to evaluate the war damage to their facilities.
In
1881, she moved into the New Jersey State Hospital, Morris Plains. The
state legislature had designated a suite for her private use as long as she
lived. Although an invalid, she carried on correspondence with people from
England, Japan, and elsewhere. She died on July 17, 1887 and was buried in Mount
Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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