Dorothea Lynde Dix (1802-87), American pioneer in the treatment of the insane. After retiring from teaching through ill-health, she became interested in the treatment of the insane. Her studies found that the insane in asylums were often left abandoned and bound without treatment. She campaigned against such practices and was largely responsible for the acceptance of mental illnesses as definable diseases. She was also responsible for the founding of thirty-two new mental institutions and the improvement of many old ones. Painted by Samuel Bell Waugh in 1868.

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Photo credit: © National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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