Dorothea Lynde Dix is best remembered for her work on behalf of the indigent, the insane, and the mentally disabled. She tirelessly lobbied the U.S. Congress and individual state legislatures alike for the improvement of residential facilities for these populations as well as for the regulation and supervision of the treatments that took place in these facilities. However, Dix's biographer Thomas J. Brown has aptly pointed out that Dix's legacy extends beyond her important work on behalf of the downtrodden. Her life also exemplifies the evolving role of women in the nineteenth century. On one hand, existing social mores dictated that she exist in the traditionally female sphere, which consisted of very narrowly defined occupations and roles. Conversely, she successfully interacted with the male establishment that populated the government of her era. According to Brown, Dix, unlike many of her female compatriots, "lived at the center of...