10 x 14"
Watercolor, ink, chalk |
Dorothea Dix1820-1887
Dorothea Dix devoted nearly her whole life to the care of the mentally ill. Their plight was first brought to her attention in 1841 when she volunteered to teach Sunday school in a jail in Cambridge, Massachusetts. There, she found the mentally ill, the retarded, and epileptics housed with prostitutes, drunks, and criminals, all without heat or sanitation. She went on to visit prisons, asylums, almshouses, and orphanages in every state east of the Mississippi River. She found inmates caged, whipped, and chained, with only straw to sleep on. She documented the conditions and presented her findings to the state legislatures. As a result of her work, hospitals were enlarged, new ones founded, and treatments were developed. During the Civil War she took time off from mental health work to take charge of the women nurses in army hospitals. “Dragon Dix,” as she was sometimes known, required that nurses were plain looking and middle aged. Flighty women looking for husbands were not accepted. After the war, Dix returned to her life’s work, founding hospitals and schools and educating people about the needs of the mentally ill. |