Dorothea Dix
Biography
1840 - 1841 Dorothea Dix conducted a statewide investigation of care for the mentally ill poor in Massachusetts
1854 Lobbied Congress to pass a bill to Fund the building of Mental Asylums from land sales. the bill was vetoed.
Dorothea's interest for helping out the mentally ill of society started while she was teaching classes to female prisoners in East Cambridge.
Old Fulton New York Post Cards
Dorothea Lynde Dix (April 4, 1802 – July 17, 1887) was an American advocate on behalf of the poor mentally ill. By her vigorous and sustained program of lobbying state legislatures and the United States Congress, she helped create the first generation of American mental asylums. During the Civil War, she served as a Superintendent of Army Nurses. However the role was far more than she could handle alone, and she made many enemies and few achievements.Page 100
The Reluctant Welfare State - Pg100
1820 Missouri Compromise 1820s Speenhamland System introduced in the South of England : 1824 First House of Refuge founded in New York; Yates Report issued in New York State 1828 Andrew Jackson elected to first of two terms a 1830s Zenith of Sunday School movement 1830s-1840s —Chartist Movement in England; zenith of antebellum temperance movement 1830s—1850s Movement to establish public schools 1834 Report of English Poor Law Commission Established ‘ 1836 Battle of the Alamo 1838-1839 Forced march of the Cherokees : 1843 New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor established in New York 1845 The term manifest destiny coined 1846-1848 Mexican-American War 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo; Seneca Falls Convention 1845-1849 Irish potato famine 1853 Charles Loring Brace founds Children’s Aid Society of New York 1854 . President Pierce vetoes a bill, initiated by Dorothea Dix, to fund construction of mental institutions by means of revenues from land sales 1859 Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection 1860 (16) Abraham Lincoln elected to first of two presidential terms 1861-1865 Civil War 1863 Emancipation Proclamation 1865 Lincoln assassinated 1865-1868 Presidency of Andrew Johnson 1865-1872 Freedmen’s Bureau in existence 1865-1900 The Gilded Age; rapid industrialization 1868 Ulysses Grant elected to first of two presidential terms ee 1873-1878 Extended period of recession : 1877 President Hayes uses federal troops to end national railroad strike 1880-1914 Arrival of 21 million immigrants in the United States 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act : 1887 Dawes Act . 1890 U.S. Census declares frontier to have officially ended; passage of Sherman Antitrust Act
1840 - 1841 Dorothea Dix conducted a statewide investigation of care for the mentally ill poor in Massachusetts
1854 Lobbied Congress to pass a bill to Fund the building of Mental Asylums from land sales. the bill was vetoed.