Dorothea Dix - Boston, MA
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neoc1
N 42° 21.496 W 071° 03.794
19T E 330086 N 4691617
A monument honoring social reformer Dorothea Dix is located on the hallway wall outside Doric Hall in the Massachusetts State House at 24 Beacon Street, Boston, MA.
Waymark Code: WMWCCT
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 08/13/2017
Views: 1
The State House Women’s Leadership Project has commemorated Dorothea Dix with a monument in the Massachusetts State House. She is one of six women, so honored, that have contributed to the government of the Commonwealth. A life size relief sculpture of Dorothea Dix is presented within a circular opening near the bottom of a rectangular slab of green marble.
The top of the slab has the inscription:
I COME TO PRESENT the strong claims of
suffering humanity. I come to place before
the Legislature of Massachusetts the condition,
of the miserable, the desolate, the outcast.
I come as an advocate of helpless, forgotten,
insane men and women; of beings, sunk
to a condition from which the unconcerned
would start with real horror.
Memorial to the Legislature of Massachusetts, 1843
Above her sculpture is inscribed:
I TELL WHAT I HAVE SEEN
{Sculpture}
DOROTHEA DIX
The lower side frame of the monument has the her date of birth and death: 1802-1887
Dorothea L. Dix was born on April 4, 1802 in Hampden, Massachusetts (now Maine). She grew up in Worcester MA. Around 1821 she started a school in Boston, serving well-to-do families. Soon she began teaching poor and less fortunate children. While teaching she was the author of many books for children. Ill health forced her to give up teaching.
She then traveled and witnessed the injustices of slavery and developed abolitionist views. Upon traveling to Europe she met reformers who inspired her to start working on equal rights for the mentally ill. Between 1840-41 she conducted a statewide investigations of care for the indigent mentally ill in Massachusetts. She published the first of several influential books titled Memorial to the Legislature of Massachusetts. She continued her crusade for the mentally ill in several other states. Her efforts were successful in the founding the first public mental hospital, the Harrisburg State Hospital in Pennsylvania. She also became an advocate for prison reform.
During the Civil War, Dix set aside her previous work to focus completely on the war effort. She was appointed Superintendent of Army Nurses by the Union Army. In this capacity set guidelines for nurses that she personally trained and hired. At the end of the war, she resumed her crusade to improve the care of prisoners, the disabled, and the mentally ill.
Dorothea L. Dix died on July 18, 1887 in Trenton, NJ at the age of 85.
Books by Dorothea L. Dix:
The Garland of Flora (botany)
Alice and Ruth
American Moral Tales: For Young Persons
Conversations on Common Things, or Guide to Knowledge: With Questions
Evening Hours
George Mills, or, The Little Boy Who Did Not Love His Books
Hymns for Children
Private Hours
The Trials of a School Girl
The Lady and the President : the letters of Dorothea Dix & Millard Fillmore
Books about mental health and prison reform:
On Behalf of the Insane Poor
Remarks on Prisons and Prison Discipline in the United States
Memorial to the Legislature of Massachusetts
Fifth Letter to Convicts in State Prisons and Houses of Correction, Or County Penitentiaries
Memorial of Miss D. L. Dix in Relation to the Illinois Penitentiary
Memorial of Miss D. L. Dix to the Hon. The General Assembly in Behalf of the Insane of Maryland