A compassionate and tireless social reformer, Dorothea Dix (1802-1887) devoted herself to improving the lives of the mentally ill and the disabled. Dix traveled the country exposing the deplorable conditions in which the less-fortunate lived and were kept out of public view; her revelations caused a public outcry and resulted in an outpouring of donations to her cause. She petitioned Congress on behalf of those she called “the wards of the nation” to set aside land in trust for their care. A bill to that effect was introduced to Congress and was passed by both houses before ultimately being vetoed by President Franklin Pierce in 1854. Undaunted, Dix continued her crusade, here and abroad in England. The whole-plate daguerreotype offered here is one of six portraits made at Southworth and Hawes’s studio in Boston around 1849 and shows the technical perfection and aesthetic sophistication associated with the photographers’ best portraiture.