Dorothea Lynde Dix

Memorial Soliciting a State Hospital for the Protection and Cure of the Insane, Submitted to the General Assembly of North Carolina, November, 1848 (D Dorothea Lynde Dix

Dorothea Lynde Dix (1802-1887) 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. In 1840-41, she conducted a statewide investigation of how her home state of Massachusetts cared for the insane poor. She later traveled from New Hampshire to Louisiana, documenting the condition of pauper lunatics, publishing memorials to state legislatures, and devoting enormous personal energy to working with committees to draft the enabling legislation and appropriations bills needed to build asylums. During the Civil War, she served as Superintendent of Army Nurses.