May 20, 2018
Civil War Nurse ~ Dorothea Lynde Dix circa 1849
4 Apr 1802 - 18 Jul 1887
An American activist on behalf of the indigent mentally ill who, through a vigorous program of lobbying state legislatures and the United States Congress, created the first generation of American mental asylums. She was the superintendent of nurses for the Union Army in the Civil War. Her efforts on behalf of the mentally ill and prisoners helped create dozens of new institutions across the United States and in Europe and changed people's perceptions of these populations.
National Portrait Gallery
