An advocate for the insane

Half-plate daguerreotype of Dorothea Dix, c. 1849

• "I come to present the strong claims of suffering humanity. I come to place before the Legislature of Massachusetts the condition of the miserable, the desolate, the outcast. I come as the advocate of helpless, forgotten, insane men and women; of beings sunk to a condition from which the unconcerned world would start with real horror."

• "The tapestry of history has no point at which you can cut it and leave the design intelligible."

• "In a world where there is so much to be done, I felt strongly impressed that there must be something for me to do."

— Dorothea Dix (1802-1887), mental-health advocate, Civil War nurse and social reformer. She was born in Hampden, Maine, and raised in Worcester, Mass.

Hit this link on 19th Century Boston doctors appealing for a mental hospital.

Hampden Narrows on the Penobscot River, c. 1910