The Resume

(April 4, 1802-July 17, 1887)
Born in Hampden, Maine
Social reformer for the mentally ill
Appointed Superintendent of Union Army Nurses during the U.S. Civil War
Namesake of the Dorothea Dix Hospital - psychiatric hospital located on Dix Hill in Raleigh, North Carolina (established 1856)
Died in Trenton, New Jersey at age 85
Subject of the biography 'Voice for the Mad: The Life of Dorothea Dix' by David Gollaher (1995)

Why she might be annoying:

She was raised by a wealthy grandmother and great aunt, yet loathed privileged life.
When her second cousin proposed marriage in 1820, she closed a small school she was operating and fled.
He followed her, asked again, she accepted and they were engaged for a year until she called it off and never married.
She had a nervous breakdown at age 34.
She was at odds with Civil War doctors who were put off by her independent ways and eventually relieved of her duties as Union Army nurse supervisor.
In 1854, she got a bill passed in both the House and Senate advocating a national government role in care for the mentally ill who were poor, but President Franklin Pierce vetoed it.
The hospital named in her honor was slated to be closed in 2008.

Why she might not be annoying:

Her father was an abusive alcoholic and she left her parents when she was 12.
She acted as surrogate mother to her two younger brothers and never knew a true childhood.
As a teacher and children's book writer, she volunteered to teach a Sunday School class for women inmates in East Cambridge Jail, MA.
The 1941 event changed her life as she witnessed the mentally ill naked, chained, beaten and housed in filthy, unheated quarters.
When she inquired about their housing conditions she was told, 'The insane do not feel heat or cold.'
She eventually took her crusade for better conditions for the insane to every state east of the Mississippi River.
She had a hand in founding 32 mental hospitals, 15 schools for the mentally challenged, a school for the blind and several training facilities for nurses.
She also helped establish libraries in mental hospitals and prisons.
She took her advocacy for the mentally ill abroad to regions such as the U.K., Scandinavia, the Mediterranean, Russia and Turkey.
She treated both Union and Confederate soldiers wounded in battle with equal compassion, endearing her to many Civil War Southerners.
By 1881 she became an invalid and spent the last six years of her life in a hospital.

Credit: Scar Tactics

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• A Hospital is Named in My Honor
• Adults Who Probably Died a Virgin
• Children's Book Authors
• Dicks and Johnsons
• I am a New Englander
• I am on a U.S. Postage Stamp [D-G]
• I Had a Nervous Breakdown
• I Have Tuberculosis
• I'm Buried at Mount Auburn Cemetary [Massachusetts]
• Look at My Book Cover
• Look at My Hair in a Bun
• My Dad was Violent/Abusive
• National Women's Hall of Fame (Ranked: 1979)
• People who Have Similar Names on Am I Annoying (Ranked: 444)
• Profiles 26001-26250 (Ranked: 26197)
• Scar Tactics' Profiles [Series 08]
• Served in the American Civil War [1861-65]
• Teachers

Year In Review:

In 2023, Out of 17 Votes: 5.88% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2021, Out of 17 Votes: 29.41% Annoying
In 2020, Out of 7 Votes: 14.29% Annoying
In 2019, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2017, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
In 2016, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
In 2015, Out of 8 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2014, Out of 21 Votes: 47.62% Annoying
In 2013, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2012, Out of 15 Votes: 20.0% Annoying
In 2011, Out of 73 Votes: 53.42% Annoying
In 2010, Out of 22 Votes: 40.91% Annoying
In 2009, Out of 47 Votes: 38.30% Annoying