Content area
Full Text
Dorothea Dix (1802-1887) was an indefatigable New England reformer who brought the plight of the mentally ill to the people and governing bodies of several states and foreign countries. Only the recently deceased Mother Theresa comes to mind as someone in our day whose accomplishments and general good works were comparable to those achieved by Miss Dix in the last century.
There have been two recent biographies of Dorothea Dix, both drawing for the first time in over a century on her papers in the Houghton Library at Harvard University. The original authorized biography by the Reverend Frances Tiffany published in 1891 used some of this material, but access to it was closely restricted until recently and other biographers' works were essentially a rehash of Tiffany's. But David Gollaher in his 1995 book Voice for the Mad: the Life of Dorothea Dixl and Thomas Brown's 1998 volume Dorothea Dix: New England Reformer 2 both had access to the Harvard material and cleared up many misconceptions of Dorothea Dix's life and work.
This paper summarizes Dorothea Dix's life and work and then turns to her efforts in Illinois in connection with the founding and later development of Illinois' first mental hospital, established by an Act of the Legislature in March 1847 and located in Jacksonville. The institution has undergone several changes in name and function over the years and is now called the Jacksonville Developmental Center, essentially a custodial institution for adult retarded citizens. But the principles of care-humane, caring treatment and assisted living in a protected environment under professional supervision- is exactly what was envisioned in the Law of 1847 and exemplifies the founding spirit of Dorothea Dix. Thus it was fitting that in September 1997, as the final event of the Jacksonville institution's sesquicentennial, a garden in memory of Dorothea Dix was dedicated at the site of the original building.
Dorothea Dix was born in the small settlement of Hampden, Maine in 1802. Her grandfather, a wealthy pharmacist, physician, and land speculator of Worcester and Boston had purchased 20,000 acres of raw land in Maine (which was then part of Massachusetts) for $1 per acre. Dorothea's father, a ne'er do well itinerant Methodist preacher, was sent there by the grandfather as a land agent....