Editing Dorothea Dix (section)

==Antebellum career==

[[File:Dorothea Dix 1802–1887.jpg|thumb|left|Half-plate daguerreotype of Dorothea Dix, c. 1849]]
Reform movements for treatment of the mentally ill were related in this period to other progressive causes: [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionism]], [[Temperance movement in the United States|temperance]], and voter reforms. After returning to America, in 1840–41 Dix conducted a statewide investigation of care for the mentally ill poor in Massachusetts. Dorothea's interest for helping out the mentally ill of society started while she was teaching classes to female prisoners in [[East Cambridge, Cambridge, Massachusetts|East Cambridge]].<ref name=":2" /> She saw how these individuals were locked up and whose medical needs weren't being satisfied since only private hospitals would have such provisions.<ref name=":2" /> It was during her time at the East Cambridge prison, that she visited the basement where she encountered four mentally ill individuals, whose cells were "dark and bare and the air was stagnant and foul".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html|title=Hall of Fame to induct Dorothea Dix|date= 1979-10-23|work=Finger Lakes Time}}</ref> She also saw how such individuals were labeled as "looney paupers" and were being locked up along with violently deranged criminals and received treatment that was inhumane.<ref>{{Cite news|last=The Christophers|url=https://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html|title=What One Person Can Do: Dorothea Dix, Advocate for the Mentally Ill|date= 1977-11-16|work=The Hamburg Sun}}</ref>

In most cases, towns contracted with local individuals to care for mentally ill people who could not care for themselves and lacked family/friends to do so. Unregulated and underfunded, this system resulted in widespread abuse. Dix published the results in a fiery report, a ''Memorial'', to the [[Massachusetts General Court|state legislature]]. "I proceed, Gentlemen, briefly to call your attention to the present state of Insane Persons confined within this [[Commonwealth of Massachusetts|Commonwealth]], in cages, stalls, pens! Chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience."<ref name="Dix1843">{{citation |year=1843 |author=Dix, Dorothea L |title=Memorial to the Legislature of Massachusetts 1843 |page=2 |url=https://archive.org/stream/memorialtolegisl00dixd#page/n4/mode/1up |access-date= 2010-11-12}}</ref> Her lobbying resulted in a bill to expand the state's [[Worcester State Hospital|mental hospital in Worcester]].{{citation needed|date=July 2018}}

During the year 1844 Dix visited all the counties, jails and [[almshouses]] in [[New Jersey]] in a similar investigation. She prepared a memorial for the [[New Jersey Legislature]], giving a detailed account of her observations and facts. Dix urgently appealed to the legislature to act and appropriate funds to construct a facility for the care and treatment of the mentally ill. She cited a number of cases to emphasize the importance of the state taking responsibility for this class of unfortunates. Dix's plea was to provide moral treatment for the mentally ill, which consisted of three values: modesty, chastity, and delicacy.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Michel|first=Sonya|year=1994|title=Dorothea Dix; or, the Voice of the Maniac|journal=Discourse|volume=17|issue=2|pages=48–66|issn=1522-5321}}</ref>

She gave as an example a man formerly respected as a legislator and [[jurist]], who, suffering from mental decline, fell into hard times in old age. Dix discovered him lying on a small bed in a basement room of the county almshouse, bereft of even necessary comforts. She wrote: "This feeble and depressed old man, a pauper, helpless, lonely, and yet conscious of surrounding circumstances, and not now wholly oblivious of the past—this feeble old man, who was he?" Many members of the legislature knew her pauper jurist. Joseph S. Dodd introduced her report to the Senate on January 23, 1845.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tiffany|first=Francis|year=1891|title=Life of Dorothea Lynde Dix |publisher=Houghton, Mifflin |url=https://archive.org/details/lifedorothealyn03tiffgoog |quote=It was first on January 23, 1845, that her Memorial to the legislature of New Jersey was presented to the Senate by Miss Dix's stanch supporter, Hon. Joseph S. Dodd. |page=[https://archive.org/details/lifedorothealyn03tiffgoog/page/n132 110] |doi=10.1037/12972-000}}</ref>

Dodd's resolution to authorize an asylum passed the following day. The first committee made their report February 25, appealing to the New Jersey legislature to act at once. Some politicians secretly opposed it due to taxes needed to support it. Dix continued to lobby for a facility, writing letters and editorials to build support. During the session, she met with legislators and held group meetings in the evening at home. The act of authorization was taken up March 14, 1845, and read for the last time. On March 25, 1845, the bill was passed for the establishment of a state facility.<ref>{{citation |title=The Institutional Care of the Insane in the United States and Canada |year=1916 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.asylumprojects.org/index.php?title=Trenton_State_Hospital |title=Trenton State Hospital |website=Asylum Projects}}</ref>

Dix traveled from [[New Hampshire]] to [[Louisiana]], documenting the condition of the poor mentally ill, making reports to [[State legislature (United States)|state legislatures]], and working with committees to draft the enabling legislation and appropriations [[Bill (law)|bills]] needed. In 1846, Dix traveled to [[Illinois]] to study mental illness. While there, she fell ill and spent the winter in [[Springfield, Illinois|Springfield]] recovering. She submitted a report to the January 1847 [[Illinois General Assembly|legislative]] session, which adopted legislation to establish Illinois' first state mental hospital.<ref>{{cite book|title=The History of Elgin Mental Health Center: Evolution of a State Hospital|first=William|last=Briska|publisher=Crossroads Communications|year=1997|page=12|isbn=0-916445-45-3}}</ref><ref>Frank B. Norbury, "Dorothea Dix and the founding of Illinois' first mental hospital." ''Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society'' 92.1 (1999): 13–29.</ref> In three years in the mid 1840s she traveled more than 10,000 miles by stagecoach, visiting over 500 almshouses, 300 county jails, 18 state penitentiaries, and an indeterminate number of hospitals. <ref>Thomas Brown, ''Dorothea Dix : New England reformer'' (1998) p. 123.</ref>

[[File:Dix Museum Harrisburg PA Asylum.JPG|thumb|upright=1.3|The Dorothea Dix Museum on the grounds of the Harrisburg State Hospital]]
In 1848, Dix visited [[North Carolina]], where she again called for reform in the care of mentally ill patients. Her first attempt to bring reform to North Carolina was denied. However, after a board member's wife requested, as a dying wish, that Dix's plea be reconsidered, the bill for reform was approved.<ref name="blogs_2006-01-01">[http://blogs.lib.unc.edu/ncm/index.php/2006/01/01/this_month_jan_1849/ January 1849: Dorothea Dix Hospital].</ref> In 1849, when the (North Carolina) State Medical Society was formed, the legislature authorized construction of an institution in the capital, [[Raleigh, North Carolina|Raleigh]], for the care of mentally ill patients. Dix Hill Asylum, named in honor of Dorothea Dix's father, was eventually opened in 1856.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130508101220/http://ncmuseumofhistory.org/nchh/nineteenth.html Nineteenth-Century North Carolina].</ref> One hundred years later, the Dix Hill Asylum was renamed the [[Dorothea Dix Hospital]], in honor of her legacy.<ref name="blogs_2006-01-01"/> A second state hospital for the mentally ill was authorized in 1875, Broughton State Hospital in [[Morganton, North Carolina]]; and ultimately, the Goldsboro Hospital for the Negro Insane was also built in eastern part of the state. Dix had a biased view that mental illness was related to conditions of educated [[White people|whites]], not [[Minority group|minorities]] (Dix, 1847).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.patdeegan.com/sites/default/files/files/separate_and_unequal.pdf|first=Vanessa|last=Jackson|title=Separate and Unequal: The Legacy of Racially Segregated Psychiatric Hospitals|year=2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617161826/https://www.patdeegan.com/sites/default/files/files/separate_and_unequal.pdf|archive-date= 2011-06-17|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[File:Dorothea Lynde Dix c1850-55.png|thumb|left|upright|Dix c. 1850–55]]
She was instrumental in the founding of the first public mental hospital in [[Pennsylvania]], the [[Harrisburg State Hospital]]. In 1853, she established its library and reading room.<ref>[http://www.rootsweb.com/~asylums/harrisburg_pa/index.html "Harrisburg State Hospital"], Historic Asylums, article hosted at Rootsweb. It was named in her honor and today serves also as a museum to the history of care for the mentally ill.</ref>

The high point of her work in Washington was the [[Bill for the Benefit of the Indigent Insane]], legislation to set aside {{convert|12225000|acre|km2|0|abbr=on}} of Federal land {{convert|10000000|acre|km2}} to be used for the benefit of the mentally ill and the remainder for the "blind, deaf, and dumb". Proceeds from its sale would be distributed to the states to build and maintain asylums. Dix's land [[Bill (law)|bill]] passed both houses of the [[United States Congress]]; but in 1854, [[President of the United States|President]] [[Franklin Pierce]] vetoed it, arguing that social welfare was the responsibility of the [[U.S. states|states]]. Stung by the defeat of her land bill, in 1854 and 1855 Dix traveled to England and Europe. She reconnected with the Rathbone family and, encouraged by British politicians who wished to increase Whitehall's reach into Scotland, conducted investigations of [[Scotland]]'s madhouses. This work resulted in the formation of the Scottish Lunacy Commission to oversee reforms.<ref name="Tiffany 1890p180onwards">Tiffany, Francis (1890). This sequence of events is described in several chapters, commencing [https://archive.org/stream/lifedorothealyn00tiffgoog#page/n206/mode/2up page 180] (n206 in electronic page field)</ref>

Dix visited the British colony of [[Nova Scotia]] in 1853 to study its care of the mentally ill. During her visit, she traveled to [[Sable Island]] to investigate reports of mentally ill patients being abandoned there. Such reports were largely unfounded. While on Sable Island, Dix assisted in a [[Shipwrecking|shipwreck]] rescue. Upon her return to Boston, she led a successful campaign to send upgraded life-saving equipment to the island.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca/eng/CCG/USQUE_Dorothea_Dix|title=Thomas E. Appleton, "Dorothea Dix", ''USQUE AD MARE A History of the Canadian Coast Guard and Marine Services''}}</ref> The day after supplies arrived, a ship was wrecked on the island. Thankfully, because of Dix's work, 180 people were saved.<ref name="auto1"> Mary G Holland, ''Our Army Nurses: Stories from Women in the Civil War''. (1897; new edition 1998). pp. 76-79.</ref>

[[File:Plaque to Dorothea Lynde Dix at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital.jpg|thumb|Plaque to Dorothea Lynde Dix at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital]]In 1854, Dix investigated the conditions of mental hospitals in [[Scotland]], and found them to be in similarly poor conditions. In 1857, after years of work and opposition, reform laws were finally passed.<ref name="auto1"/> Dix took up a similar project in [[the Channel Islands]], finally managing the building of an asylum after thirteen years of agitation.<ref name="auto1"/> Extending her work throughout Europe, Dix continued on to Rome. Once again finding disrepair and maltreatment, Dix sought an audience with [[Pope Pius IX]]. The pope was receptive to Dix's findings and visited the asylums himself, shocked at their conditions. He thanked Dix for her work, saying in a second audience with her that "a woman and a Protestant, had crossed the seas to call his attention to these cruelly ill-treated members of his flock."<ref name="auto1"/>  Dix ultimately founded thirty-two hospitals, and influenced the creation of two others in Japan.<ref name="auto1"/>

[[Image: Dorothea Dix Fountain.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Fountain for thirsty horses Dix gave to the city of Boston to honor the [[Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals-Angell Animal Medical Center|MSPCA]]]]