Scope and Content: The Hazardous Waste Facility Site Safety Council was an independent Massachusetts state agency responsible in conjunction with the Dept. of Environmental Management and the Dept. of Environmental Protection for overseeing siting of hazardous waste treatment facilities from 1980 to 1996.  Siting process as administered by the council included receiving and reviewing developer’s proposal and facilitating negotiations among developer and affected communities prior to the reaching of a siting agreement declared operative by the council.  Series consists of audiovisual materials publicizing or providing background for the agency’s mission, as produced chiefly by the Dept. of Environmental Management or local television news organizations.
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Scope and Content: As the unit responsible for managing the governor’s mail, the Governor’s Correspondence Office maintained these files of correspondence between the governor and high-ranking public officials.
Arrangement: Arranged by office
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Scope and Content: The Experimental School for Teaching and Training Idiotic Children conducted at the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind from 1848 was incorporated by Massachusetts as the Massachusetts School for Idiotic and Feeble-Minded Youth in 1850.  It was renamed Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded in 1883 and Walter E. Fernald State School in 1925.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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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 G. 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 still in litigation as of 2013.
Arrangement:  Arranged chronologically
Notes: Formerly designated (when held in agency) as: (M-Ar)N154.
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Scope and Content: The State Almshouse at Tewksbury opened in 1854.  It was renamed successively the State Hospital (1900), the State Infirmary (1909), Tewksbury State Hospital and Infirmary (1939), and Tewksbury Hospital (1959)
Notes: Contents: 1863-1887.  1888-1897.  1907-1908
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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.  From 1879 oversight of the school was vested in the Trustees of the State Primary and Reform Schools (St 1879, c 291, s 8; St 1880, c 208)–succeeding the school’s Board of Inspectors; they fixed State Primary School rules and regulations, placed inmates out of the Primary School with families, and transferred to the school inmates from the State Reform School and the State Industrial School.  Series records decisions made at monthly meetings as transmitted to the school superintendent.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by meeting date
Notes: Files for 1879, 1889-1890, 1892-1893 (some incomplete) only.  For a complete record see: Transcripts of votes of Trustees of the State Primary and Reform Schools, 1879-1895 ((M-Ar)901X)
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Scope and Content: Massachusetts has administered water works and sewage disposal for the Boston metropolitan area successively through the Board of Metropolitan Sewerage Commissioners (Metropolitan Sewerage Commission) (1889-1901) and the Metropolitan Water Board (1895-1901); the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board (1901-1919); and the Water and Sewerage Divisions of the Metropolitan District Commission (1919-1985).  Since 1985, the sewerage works functions have been assigned to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), and the water works functions have been shared by the MWRA (distribution) and the Metropolitan District Commission (to 2003) and the Dept.  of Conservation and Recreation (since 2003) (water supply reservoirs and their watershed management).
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Transferred to Archives from Metropolitan District Commission
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Scope and Content: Massachusetts has administered water works and sewage disposal for the Boston metropolitan area successively through the Board of Metropolitan Sewerage Commissioners (Metropolitan Sewerage Commission) (1889-1901) and the Metropolitan Water Board (1895-1901); the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board (1901-1919); and the Water and Sewerage Divisions of the Metropolitan District Commission (1919-1985).  Since 1985, the sewerage works functions have been assigned to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), and the water works functions have been shared by the MWRA (distribution) and the Metropolitan District Commission (to 2003) and the Dept.  of Conservation and Recreation (since 2003) (water supply reservoirs and their watershed management).
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Transferred to Archives from Metropolitan District Commission, Earlier volumes lost in agency flood
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Scope and Content:  The State Prison was opened in 1805 at Charlestown, Boston, as a successor to the prison on Castle Island.  During 1878-1884 the prison was closed and inmates kept at Concord.  With that exception, Charlestown remained the state prison until replaced by Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Walpole, 1955-1956.
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by prisoner, thereunder chronologically
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Scope and Content: Programs and institutions for the mentally ill and retarded of Massachusetts were among the responsibilities successively of the Board of State Charities (St 1863, c 240), State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity (St 1879, c 291), and State Board of Lunacy and Charity (St 1886, c 101).  They were then the sole responsibility successively of the State Board of Insanity (St 1898, c 433), Massachusetts Commission on Mental Diseases (St 1916, c 285), Dept. of Mental Diseases (St 1919, c 350, ss 79-81), and Dept. of Mental Health (St 1938, c 486) –Under the provisions of St 1854, c 95, persons confined in a jail or house of correction who were diagnosed with mental illness could be removed to a lunatic hospital or other suitable location if ordered by the governor, with transport assigned to the county sheriff. St 1880, c 250 authorized the State Board of Health, Lunacy and Charity to designate two persons to examine state prison and reformatory inmates alleged to be insane and report to the governor, who could issue warrants to prison superintendents or wardens for their transfer to state lunatic hospitals (state insane hospitals from 1898). St 1909, c 504, s 105 transferred power to issue warrants to the superior court in the county where the prison was located.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Spine title: Removals from prisons, etc. to lunatic hospitals
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