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The Lincoln Memorial Shrine

A Lincoln Museum in Redlands, CA

Two hundred years after his birth, the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln continues to fascinate and inspire. Born into poverty on the edge of an untamed frontier, his rise from obscurity to greatness has become a symbol of the universal hope that we can all improve our circumstances in life.

Dorothea Dix

(Library of Congress)

A week after the attack on Fort Sumter in April, 1861, Dorothea Dix made her way to Baltimore, Maryland to offer her services to aid wounded soldiers. Finding inadequate, improvised hospitals, she volunteered to aid the War Department. Despite her lack of experience, Dix was named Superintendent of Army Nurses, requiring her to obtain medical supplies and hire and train women nurses. Known for her stern and inflexible demeanor, she implemented strict guidelines for women to volunteer as Army nurses, selecting “plain looking” between the ages of 35 and 50 with an authorized dress code of modest black or brown skirts and forbade hoops or jewelry. Dix pushed for formal training for the female nurses under her command and eventually convinced some skeptical military officials that women were up to the task. She appointed over 3,000 women as Army nurses during the course of the war.

(Lincoln Memorial Shrine)

Serving as Superintendent without pay through the entire war, Dix worked untiringly to aid the patients under her care, often times at the detriment of nurses who came to fear her, leading to nicknames the “Dragon Dix” and “Dictator in a Petticoat”. Dix clashed frequently with the military bureaucracy and occasionally ignored administrative details. She often obtained medical supplies, linens, fruit, and bedclothes from private sources when they were not forthcoming from the government and irritated some radical republicans by insisting that captured rebel soldiers be given identical care.  Army nursing care was markedly improved thanks to her leadership. She never took a day off in the entire four years of the war. In this December 5, 1861 manuscript, Dix thanks L.A. Richards of Pottstown, Pennsylvania for a donation and then asks for more material:

I should be thankful for a large stock of old and new pocket handkerchiefs—common sorts: shirts and drawers of common sizes and patterns: flannel if possible—kept best in unbleached state certain flannel—following this say standard unbleached muslin.

After the war, Dix continued her work in the reforms of jailhouses and asylums until she was in her eighties. Her death in 1887 was lamented by hundreds of soldiers, both North and South, whose lives she had helped save.

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Mission Statement

As a museum and memorial, the Lincoln Memorial Shrine seeks to deepen the understanding of President Abraham Lincoln and the American Civil War and its impacts on generations of Americans through education, interaction, exhibition, and research.

Donate to the LMS

If you would like to give a donation to the Lincoln Memorial Shrine, please contact Nathan Gonzales, Curator at (909)798-7632 or heritage@akspl.org.

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Contact Us

Research Center - (909) 798-7632

Museum - (909) 798-7636

125 West Vine Street Redlands, CA

 

Group Tours

Tours are temporarily unavailable.

Hours of Operation

Monday Closed
Tuesday Closed
Wednesday Closed
Thursday Closed
Friday Closed
Saturday Closed
Sunday Closed

Copyright © 2021 · Lincoln Memorial Shrine, All Rights Reserved

The Lincoln Memorial Shrine is a unit of the Special Collections Division of A.K. Smiley Public Library. The Watchorn Lincoln Memorial Association, a 501 (c)3 tax deductible organization oversees the WLMA endowment.