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DOROTHEA LYNDE See also:DIX (1802-1887) , See also:American philanthropist, was See also:born at See also:Hampden, See also:Maine, on the 4th of See also:April 18o2 .. Her parents were poor and shiftless, and at an See also:early See also:age she was taken into the See also:home in See also:Boston of her grandmother, Dorothea Lynde, wife of Dr See also:Elijah See also:Dix . Here she was reared in a distinctly Puritanical See also:atmosphere . About 1821 she opened a school in Boston, which was patronized by the well-to-do families; and soon afterwards she also began teaching poor and neglected See also:children at home . But her See also:health See also:broke down, and from 1824 to 183o she was chiefly occupied with the See also:writing of books of devotion and stories for children . Her Conversations on See also:Common Things (1824) had reached its sixtieth edition by 1869 . In 1831 she established in Boston a See also:model school for girls, and conductedthis successfully until 1836, when her health again failed . In 1841 she became interested in the See also:condition of gaols and See also:alms-houses, and spent two years in visiting every such institution in See also:Massachusetts, investigating especially the treatment of the pauper insane . Her memorial to the See also:state legislature dealing with the abuses she discovered resulted in more adequate See also:provision being made for the care and treatment of the insane, and she then extended her See also:work into many other states . By 1847 she had travelled from Nova See also:Scotia to the Gulf of See also:Mexico, and had visited 18 state penitentiaries, 300 See also:county gaols and houses of correction, and over 500 almshouses . Her labours resulted in the See also:establishment of insane asylums in twenty states and in Nova Scotia and See also:Newfoundland, and in the See also:founding of many additional gaols and almshouses conducted on a reformed See also:plan . In 1853 she secured more adequate equipment for the See also:life-saving service on See also:Sable See also:Island, then rightly called " the graveyard of See also:ships." In 1854 she secured the passage by See also:Congress of a See also:bill granting to the states 12,250,000 acres of public lands, to be utilized for the benefit of the insane, See also:deaf, dumb and See also:blind; but the measure was vetoed by See also:President See also:Pierce .
After this disappointment she went to See also:England for See also:rest, but at once became interested in the condition of the insane in See also:Scotland, and her See also:report to the home secretary opened the way for sweeping reforms
.
She extended her work into the Channel Islands, and then to See also:France, See also:Italy, See also:Austria, See also:Greece, See also:Turkey, See also:Russia, See also:Sweden, See also:Norway, See also:Denmark, See also: |
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