Dorothea Lynde Dix was an American advocate on behalf of the indigent mentally ill who, through a vigorous and sustained program of lobbying state legislatures and the United States Congress, created the first generation of American mental asylums. During the Civil War, she served as a Superintendent of Army Nurses.
Dorothea Dix
Plaque to Dorothea Dix, Royal Edinburgh Hospital
Half-plate daguerreotype of Dorothea Dix, c. 1849
The Dorothea Dix Museum on the grounds of the Harrisburg State Hospital
The lunatic asylum, insane asylum or mental asylum was an institution where people with mental illness were confined. It was an early precursor of the modern psychiatric hospital.
Social alienation was one of the main themes in Francisco Goya's masterpieces, such as The Madhouse (above).
Eastern State Hospital was the first psychiatric institution to be founded in the United States.
Dr. Philippe Pinel at the Salpêtrière, 1795 by Tony Robert-Fleury. Pinel ordering the removal of chains from patients at the Paris asylum for insane women.
The joint counties' lunatic asylum, erected at Abergavenny, 1850