author
Dorothea Lynde Dix
1802–1887
Best known for transforming public attitudes toward mental illness, this determined reformer pushed states to create more humane care for people who had long been neglected. She also took on a demanding national role during the Civil War as Superintendent of Army Nurses.
1 Audiobook
John Williams : or The sailor boy
by Dorothea Lynde Dix
About the author
Born in Hampden, Maine, in 1802, Dorothea Lynde Dix began her working life as a teacher and writer before turning to social reform. After visiting a jail in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and seeing people with mental illness held in shocking conditions, she launched a long campaign to persuade lawmakers that they deserved treatment, dignity, and proper institutions.
Her reports and relentless lobbying helped spur the creation or expansion of hospitals and reform measures across the United States, and her influence reached beyond the country as well. She became one of the most important voices in 19th-century mental health reform, known for collecting evidence carefully and pressing officials to act.
During the American Civil War, Dix served as Superintendent of Army Nurses for the Union, organizing and overseeing nursing efforts under difficult conditions. She spent her later years at the New Jersey State Hospital in Trenton, one of the institutions connected to her reform work, and died there in 1887.