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Dorothea Dix was born
Dorothea Dix was born on April 4th, 1802 in Hampden, Maine. -
Dix Family Moves.
The Dix family moved to Vermont because the town of Hampden was invaded by the British in the war of 1812. -
First School Opened
Dorothea Dix opens her first school for young children at the age of 14. For the next 20 years she combined teaching with writing textbooks, poetry, and religious tracts for young readers. -
School shut down.
Dix shuts down her first school, and goes back to the mansion. She starts teaching there. The main reason for shut down was because of Edward proposing to Dorothea Dix. She had gotten scared and went back . -
Joseph Dix dies
Dorothea Dix's father, Joseph Dix dies in the spring of 1821. -
New Teaching
Dix starts teaching 2 classes a day at the Dix mansion and also begins wiritng books for children. -
General Levi Lincoln Elected governor
In the fall of 1831, when she was twenty-nine, she received news that her good friend, General Levi Lincoln, was elected the new government of Massachusetts and his secretary of state happened to be her former fiance, Edward Bangs. These two individuals would later become influential in getting Dorothea's laws concerning mental health accepted as government policy. -
Dix volunteers at jail.
Dorothea Dix was asked to volunteer and teach at the Cambridge jail. That day, she was very surprised by what she saw at this jail. A number of the people there had committed only one "crime": they were mentally ill. Dix was dissapointed to see that the only reason they had to stay in this place was because they were mentally ill. -
Dix creates a memorial
Based on her observations, she crafted a powerful memorial which was presented in 1843 to the Massachusetts legislature by Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, Director of the Perkins School for the Blind and himself a strong advocate for the mentally ill. The memorial first met with criticism and denial, but independent observations soon supported the truth of her claims. -
Another memorial
Dorothea Dix proposes another memorial to the New York State legislature after doing many more observations on the mentatlly ill. -
More memorials
She presents two more memorials to New Jersey and Pennsylvania lawmakers. Her pattern in each state was the same. She traveled extensively to collect data, and then prepared a memorial bearing her carefully documented findings, to be delivered by a friendly and well-known political figure, pleading for funding for better accommodations for the mentally ill. -
Land Proposal
Dix proposed that a federal land-grant of 12,500,000 acres be set aside as a public endowment, the income to be used for the benefit of the blind, deaf, mute and insane. -
Construction
President Millard Fillmore was a supporter of Dorothea Dix and, in 1852, signed an executive order to begin construction of a hospital that would benefit Army and Navy veterans. -
Franklin Pierce elected president
Right before Dorothea Dix's plans had been seen by the president, Pierce was elected, and that had changed everything around. He has vetoed her bill and put an end to it. -
Dix travels to Europe
Discouraged, Dix traveled to Europe in 1854 to rest. But once there, she soon learned of the great disparity between private hospitals for the wealthy and miserable public facilities for the insane poor in Europe. Again, she set out to investigate and to agitate for reform. -
Travel to other countries.
From 1854-56 she traveled in 14 countries and instigated many changes. For example, upon finding deplorable hospital conditions in Rome, Dix managed to get an audience with Pope Pius IX. Having verified the accuracy of her reports, the Pope undertook a series of improvements. He expressed his appreciation for her work and compared her to Saint Theresa. -
Return with issue
Back in the United States in 1856, Dix resumed her reform work, but now the country was torn over the slavery issue. -
Dorothea Dix Hospital
Dorothea's hard work had inspired the building of many hospitals, including the Dorotha Dix Hospital which was built in 1856, but was later named after her. -
Civil War begins.
In 1861, as the Civil War began, Dix volunteered her services and was named Superintendent of United States Army Nurses. Her tasks were to organize first aid stations, recruit nurses, purchase supplies and help to set up training facilities and field hospitals. -
Civil war ends
Once the civil war ends, Dorotha Dix goes back to finding ways for the menatlly ill. With the many new immigrants, she had gained a lot more success than she had in the past. -
Dix gets back to work
In 1867, she returned to her work with hospitals, lobbying for money to rebuild those that were destroyed. -
Health starts falling.
Her health began to fail in 1881 at the age of seventy-nine, while on another tour of the south. Arriving in Trenton, she checked herself into the state hospital that she had helped found. -
Dorothea Dix dies
After living a wonderful life, Dorotha Dix passes away on July 18th, 1887. She was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
