Scope and Content: The Reformatory Prison for Women was opened in Sherborn in 1877.  It was renamed the Reformatory for Women by St 1911, c 181 and because of a redrawn boundary line its fuller designation was changed from the Reformatory for Women at Sherborn to the Reformatory for Women at Framingham by St 1932, c 180, s 24.  Under St 1955, c 770 it received its current name, the Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Framingham.
Arrangement: In two subseries: (1) Inmates transferred into reformatory (2) Inmates transferred out of reformatory; Arranged within each subseries chronologically
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Scope and Content: The State Primary School, opened at the State Almshouse at Monson in 1866 and continuing after the almshouse’s closing in 1872 until 1895, provided lodging, instruction, and employment for dependent and neglected children under age sixteen without settlement in the Commonwealth and some juvenile offenders.  Series was created to administer their admission to the institution as follows:
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Files for 1870, 1876-1878, 1883, 1886, 1889-1890, 1892-1894 only; pre-1889 files fragmentary. Box 1: 1870-1890.  Box 2: 1892-1894. Reel GSU 447: 1870-1892.  Reel GSU 448: 1892-1894
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Scope and Content: The state secretary as record keeper of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts receives orders from the General Court.  Series consists of these orders and related documents.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by year
Notes: Formerly part of: Miscellaneous collection, boxes 5-6, 93C. Box 1: 1782-1838.  Box 2: 1839-1901, 1941
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Scope and Content: In pre-Revolutionary Massachusetts, the first Provincial Congress ordered a committee to inquire and report on the proper time for the province to provide a reserve of powder, ordnance, and ordnance stores (Journals, Oct. 24, 1774).  The committee provided an itemized list of proposed ordnance the following day.  Then the congress appointed a Committee of Supplies to work in conjunction with the Committee of Safety to provide for the reception, support, and provision of any militia that might be formed (Journals, Oct, 26, 1774).  The committee continued in existence for only a few months after the resumption of the General Court in July 1775 (Resolves 1775-75, c 371 (Nov. 9, 1775)).  Its work was assisted by a commissary (Journals, Feb. 11, 1775) and a quartermaster general (Journals, Committee of Safety, Apr. 30, 1775) –During the period of the second Provincial Congress, the Committee of Supplies was empowered to purchase military stores and provisions and to deposit them in suitable places for delivery to the troops by the commissary general (Journals, Apr. 29, 1775). The following day the Committee of Safety was able to report (Journals, Apr. 30, 1775) the  presence of ordnance stores at Cambridge and Watertown (at Edward Richardson’s tavern, to which Capt. Waite Foster had been ordered to care for cannon and entrenching tools–Journals, Committee of Safety, Apr. 22, 1775), supply sites that amassed and delivered weaponry and accouterments to the Massachusetts army.  Soon thereafter, the third congress appointed Major Nathaniel Barber ordnance storekeeper at Cambridge (Journals, June 7, 1775), succeeded by Ezekiel Cheever (Journals, June 27, 1775).  Meantime, four storekeepers of officer rank were authorized (Journals, June 19, 1775).  Following his July 1775 assumption of command of the Continental Army in Cambridge, George Washington reorganized Massachusetts ordnance stores and storekeepers.  In August, he appointed Cheever to the position of Commissary of Artillery, later renamed Commissary of Military Stores of the Continental Army.
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Scope and Content: Massachusetts Resolves 1846, c 117 appointed Commissioners on Idiocy to inquire on: the condition of idiots in the commonwealth and if anything can be done for them. The commission’s report, written by Samuel Gridley Howe of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, led to the establishment by Resolves 1848, c 65 of the Experimental School for Teaching and Training Idiotic Children, located at the Perkins Institution. The school was incorporated as the Massachusetts School for Idiotic and Feeble-Minded Youth (St 1850, c 150), located near Perkins in South Boston, with Howe serving as president until his death in 1876. It was renamed the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded by St 1883, c 239, reflecting the establishment of a separate asylum department for those beyond school age or not capable of being helped by the school’s instruction. Funds for the construction of a new facility in Waltham were provided by Resolves 1888, c 82, and occupation of the new site began in 1890, with the South Boston facility closing in 1892. St 1925, c 293 renamed the institution the Walter E. Fernald State School, in honor of the superintendent of the school, 1887-1924. A 2003 gubernatorial initiative to close the Fernald School (known as the Walter E. Fernald Developmental Center since 1993) by 2007 was contested during the subsequent decade, until the institution was shut down permanently in Nov. 2014.
Restrictions: Mental retardation client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 123B, s 17. For conditions of access consult repository
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Scope and Content: The State Almshouse at Monson provided residence for paupers without settlement in the Commonwealth from 1854 to 1872.  The State Primary School, opened at the almshouse in 1866 and continuing after its closing until 1895, provided lodging, instruction, and employment for dependent and neglected children under age sixteen without settlement in the Commonwealth and some juvenile offenders.  Series consisting of letterpress copies of replies to correspondence to the institutions’ superintendent was maintained to administer them.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Vols. 28-30 transferred to: Correspondence concerning placement applications ((M-Ar)916X)
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Scope and Content: The Metropolitan Park Commission (MPC) (1893-1919) was responsible for the supervision, maintenance, policing, and use of land for the Metropolitan Parks District (Boston and surrounding communities), including maintenance of its roads and sewers.  The duties of the general superintendent were to supervise the work at each reservation and to report to the MPC secretary.  Outgoing correspondence (recorded in letterpress copybooks) includes reports to the secretary, and correspondence with the supervisors of each reservation and with officials in towns in which reservations were located.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: In 1896 the post of General Superintendent was replaced with a Superintendence Dept
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Scope and Content: The Metropolitan Park Commission (1893-1919) and its successor the Metropolitan District Commission, since 1919 has been responsible for oversight of the acquisition, maintenance, policing, and use of the Metropolitan Parks District (Boston and surrounding communities), including maintenance of its roads and sewers.  The Law Office maintained correspondence (recorded in letterpress copybooks) with the Attorney General to provide information concerning land taking, right-of-way, title examinations, appraisals, contracts, and personnel issues, as well as for requesting opinions on these issues for pending cases and on other legal questions not answerable by the Law Office.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: The Metropolitan Park Commission (MPC) (1893-1919) and its successor the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) (since 1919 have been responsible for oversight of the acquisition, maintenance, policing, and use of the Metropolitan Park District (Boston and Surrounding communities), including maintenance of its roads and sewers.  The secretary for the MPC and later the MDC oversaw the operation of all departments.  Outgoing correspondence (recorded in letterpress copybooks) was created to transact commission business including landtaking, contracts, permits for use of parks, pending legislation, and personnel matters.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: The Metropolitan Park Commission (MPC) (1893-1919) and its successor the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) (since 1919) has been responsible for oversight of the acquisition, maintenance, policing, and use of the Metropolitan Parks District (Boston and surrounding communities), including maintenance of its roads and sewers.  The secretary for the MPC and later the MDC maintained correspondence (recorded in letterpress copybooks) with Commission’s Law Office and the Attorney General’s Office on legal issues relating to routine operations of the agencies.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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