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Dorothea Dix was born on April 4, 1802. She was born in Hampden, Maine to Joseph and Mary Bigelow.
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When she was 12 she ran away to her grandparent's house. She was running from an alchoholic family and an abusive father.
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In 1821 Dorothea opened her first school in Boston. Soon after that she started to teach poor children at home.
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In 1824 Dorothea made her book "Conversations on Common Things".
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In 1824 her health broke down causing the writing of her first book. In 1836 her health failed again and she traveled to England, seeking a cure.
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While Dorothea was in England, she stayed wiith the Rathboe Family. There she met people who believed that government should play a direct, active role in social welfare. She was also exposed to the British lunacy reform movement. they were people who condusted thourough investigations of madhouses and asylums.
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Once she returned to America she conducted a statewide investigation of how her home state, Massaschusettes, cared for the insane poor.
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When the North Carolina State Medical Society was formed ,
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In 1856 a hospital named in honor of her opened.
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During the Civil War, Dix was appointed Superintendent of Army Nurses by the Union Army, beating out Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell.
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After the war she resumed her crusade to improve the treatment of disbled people.
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Dorothea Dix died on July 17, 1887. She lived to be 85 years old. Later on she was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Maddachusettes.
