was born in Hampden, Maine, on April 4, 1802. The town of Hampden was taken over by the British during the War of 1812, but the Dix family took refuge in Vermont shortly before the war began. The family eventually settled in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Dorothea's childhood was less than ideal. Her father was an abusive alcoholic, her mother had mental health issues, and young Dorothea often found herself having to take care of her brothers and sisters, as well as her brother's children. She often took refuge at her grandmother's house, in Boston. When she was twelve, Dorothea and two of her siblings were removed from their parents and placed with their grandmother.

Despite her troubled childhood, Dorothea learned how to read and write while still fairly young, so by the time she entered school she was way ahead of her classmates. Her grandmother, matriarch of a wealthy family, tried to give Dorothea the best of everything, but Dorothea wanted none of it. At one time, Dorothea's grandmother even punished her when she tried to give food and some of her new clothes to beggar children outside the mansion gates. At the age of fourteen, Dorothea was sent to live with a great-aunt, who had instructions to turn Dorothea into a "lady."

While living with her great-aunt, Dorothea, with the help of her second cousin, Edward Bangs, established a "little dame school" in Worcester. In the early 1800's girls were not permitted to attend public schools, but they could be taught by other women privately. In the fall of 1816, at the age of fifteen, Dorothea faced her first twenty pupils between the ages of six and eight. She ran this "school" for three years. When she was eighteen, Edward, who was thirty-one, professed his love for her and proposed marriage. Dorothea immediately closed down her school and returned to her grandmother's house in order to deter him, but Edward followed her to Boston. Dorothea finally agreed to marry him, but she refused to set a date for the wedding.

After returning to Boston, Dorothea approached her grandmother about opening a school for poor girls in the Dix mansion; to her great surprise, her grandmother agreed. Between 1822 and 1836, Dorothea managed to teach two classes of girls and write several books for children. By 1836, however, she had become quite drained physically and emotionally, and she eventually suffered a complete breakdown. We now know that she was suffering from tuberculosis, but in her day doctors had no name for her condition or a treatment for it. Upon her doctor's urging she gave up her school and took a long vacation to England. She stayed in England until January of 1841, when she returned to Boston.

In March of 1841, Dorothea volunteered to teach a Sunday School class for women inmates at the East Cambridge Jail. Within the confines of the jail she observed prostitutes, drunks, criminals, and mentally challenged people all housed together in unheated, unfurnished, and unhealthy quarters. When she asked why the jail was kept in such horrible condition, she was answered with "the insane do not feel heat or cold."

Dorothea immediately went to the courts to get conditions at the jail improved, and after a series of battles finally won. She then proceeded to visit jails and almshouses across the state, making careful and extensive notes at each. She published the results of her visits in a fiery pamphlet, Memorial, which she then sent to the Massachusetts State Legislature. She had influence within that body because she was good friends with the Governor, Levi Lincoln. That influence, combined with her carefully prepared pamphlet, convinced the State Legislature to provide the necessary funding to build new asylums and to improve conditions at existing ones.

Following her success in Massachusetts, Dix embarked on a nationwide tour of asylums, traveling from New Hampshire to Louisiana. Like she had in Massachusetts, she took careful notes of everything she saw and spent countless hours compiling the information she gathered. She devoted considerable time and energy to working with committees to draft the appropriations bills needed to build and improve asylums. Although her health was very poor, she played a major role in founding 32 mental hospitals, 15 schools for the mentally retarded, a school for the blind, and numerous training facilities for nurses. She was also instrumental in establishing libraries in prisons, mental hospitals and other institutions.

The culmination of Dix's work was federal legislation to set aside 10,000,000 acres of federal land, with proceeds from its sale distributed to the states to build and maintain asylums. The bill passed both houses of Congress in 1854, but President Franklin Pierce vetoed it, arguing that the federal government should not involve itself in social welfare.

Physically and emotionally drained from all her work, Dorothea decided to travel to Europe for a much needed rest. Once she got to Europe, however, she had no time to rest because she began her process of inspecting jails and almshouses there as well. Between 1854 and 1855, she made an effective change in the way many European nations dealt with the mentally ill.

Upon returning to the United States in 1855, Dorothea resumed her travels and investigations, making a point to visit states she had missed before. She was appointed Superintendent of Union Army Nurses upon outbreak of the Civil War, but proved to be an ineffective administrator. Although she was gradually relieved of real responsibility, she continued to serve throughout the war.

In 1881, the New Jersey State Hospital opened in Trenton. This was the first hospital that was directly initiated and built through her efforts to be opened. Since her health was failing she admitted herself into this hospital. She died there on July 17, 1887.

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