2005-03
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/28/2005
DIX, Dorothea (1802-1887) Nurse and humanitarian she dedicated herself to the study and reform of conditions in insane asylums. In June 1861 she was appointed Superintendent of women nurses for the Federal government, in which role she oversaw the recruitment, training, and placement of some 2,000 women who cared for the Union war-wounded. Called ‘Dragon Dix’ by some, the superintendent was stern and brusque, clashing frequently with the military bureaucracy and occassionaly ignorning unimportant administrative details. War-Date Autograph Letter Signed, “D.L. Dix” 2p. octavo, December 5, 1861, Washington, D.C., in part: ‘...I received...your valuable donation for use in the field and fort hosptials in vicinity near Washington. Please extend my grateful thanks for this generous aid, especially grateful for our loyal and patriotic sentiments...In the present I should be thankful for a large stack of old or new handkerchiefs - can use in forts. Also shorts and drawers of all sizes and patterns, flannel if possible...or unbleached muslin...” VG...plus; Letter addressed to Dix by a Pottstown, Pa lady forwarding similar items for the relief of ‘those soldiers who have suffered in aiding their country in her hour of peril...’ VG. (2 items)
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