Scope and Content: The state secretary holds constitutional and statutory responsibilities for elections, duties carried out since 1948 in the secretary’s Elections Division.  Pursuant to MGLA c 41, s 15, town clerks are required to transmit to the state secretary a complete list of all town officers elected, immediately after each annual town election.  Returns of elected town officers are certified by the town clerks on forms provided by the secretary.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by year, thereunder alphabetically by town
Notes: Returns for 1983-1989, 1991 transferred from Commissions Section. Also known as: E2-41. Returns for 1973-1982, most of 1989 lacking
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Scope and Content: Massachusetts Const Amend Art 21 states the principle of equal representation in voting districts. MGLA c 54, ss 2,6 requires that in the year following the decennial federal census, the city ward/precinct or town precinct divisions be examined in light of population changes recorded by that census, to ensure the equal number of residents in each precinct. The city or town clerk must send notice to the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth forthwith after the city council or the board of selectmen vote to accept a plan. Six items must be submitted: (1) Number and designation (numbers or letters) of wards and precincts and their population (2) Official census map showing new wards and precincts designated by number and letter (3) Physical boundary description of the new wards and precincts which includes the number of residents in each new ward and precinct (4) List of the census tract and block numbers and each block’s population for each precinct (5) Map with the precincts drawn on it (6) Vote of adoption. Changes take effect at the end of year following the census. –All of the above submissions must be certified. When submitted, these materials should be accompanied by a letter from the city or town clerk or election commission that the materials have been certified by a vote of the board of selectmen or board of aldermen or the city council. The Office of Secretary of the Commonwealth transmits these materials to the Local Election District Review Commission (LEDRC). LEDRC is an independent commission charged with the responsibilities of overseeing, supervising and approving the divisions of cities and towns into precincts. While LEDRC is within the department of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, it is not within his supervision or control. LEDRC consists of three members: the attorney general and the state secretary, or their designees, and a third member appointed by the governor. Each member serves at the pleasure of his or her respective designating officer. –LEDRC reviews each plan under the requirements of MGLA c 54 and other relevant constitutional requirements.  LEDRC has the authority to reject submitted plans and to require local authorities to reconfigure their wards and precincts. If the plan is disapproved, LEDRC must clearly spell out the deficiencies in the plan in writing and promptly notify the local officials. If a locality fails to submit a ward and precinct plan or fails to comply with a directive of LEDRC following its review, then LEDRC (or a master appointed by LEDRC) is mandated to make local ward and precinct divisions itself. The cost of any such undertaking by LEDRC is borne by the offending locality.
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Scope and Content: North Reading State Sanatorium provided care and treatment of tuberculosis patients in Massachusetts from 1909 to 1962, being confined to juvenile clientele from 1927.  Employee medical records were kept by sanatorium medical staff who treated employee patients.
Arrangement: Arranged by case no./chronologically by treatment date
Restrictions: Personal medical information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 4, s 7, d 26(c), c 66A. For conditions of access consult repository
Notes: Transferred to Western Massachusetts Hospital ca. 1962, when North Reading State Sanatorium closed.  Transferred to Archives, Aug.-Sept. 1982. Case no. 1-1121 only, although index cites numbers through 1588
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Scope and Content: The Boston Lunatic Hospital was established as a municipal agency in 1839; it was renamed Boston Insane Hospital in 1897.  It was made a Massachusetts state agency under the name Boston State Hospital in 1908 and closed in 1981.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: Since 1971 the Executive Office of Human Services (Executive Office of Health and Human Services since 1992) has been responsible through its constitutent agencies for the delivery of a wide range of services to persons with financial, health, social, protective, rehabilitation, and correctional needs. Its role is one of management and fiscal oversight, coordination of interagency planning and program development, and policy analysis.  A director of employment and training, through one of the executive office’s assistant secretaries, developed and administered training programs for constituencies of the office, in cooperation with departments of the office and the Executive Office of Economic Affairs.  Series was created to develop policy in this area.
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Scope and Content: Since 1971 the Executive Office of Human Services (Executive Office of Health and Human Services since 1992) has been responsible through its constitutent agencies for the delivery of a wide range of services to persons with financial, health, social, protective, rehabilitation, and correctional needs. Its role is one of management and fiscal oversight, coordination of interagency planning and program development, and policy analysis.  Series is created to obtain legislation favorable to the goals of the office and its departments.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by year, thereunder by bill no
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Scope and Content: The Charles River Basin Commission was established in 1903 to make examinations and plans for and to carry out the construction of a dam across the Charles River between Boston and Cambridge.  To carry out this task, engineers hired by the commission conducted surveys, took measurements, and made calculations and estimates that were used to plan and execute construction of the dam.  Engineer calculation and field notebooks contain for the most part calculations and estimates made in the office from data collected in field, although three notebooks contain more preliminary data.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: When the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) was established in 1919 as a successor to the Metropolitan Park Commission (MPC) and the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board, the Engineering Dept. of the MDC’s Parks Division continued the functions of the Engineering Dept. of the MPC.  Known also as Park Engineering, Parks Engineering, and the Parks Engineering Dept., it was designated as early as 1953 as the Division of Parks Engineering, until absorbed into the Engineering Division by 1975.
Arrangement: Arranged by notebook number
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Scope and Content: As part of their function to oversee, protect, and develop the waterways of Massachusetts, the Division of Waterways of the Dept. of Public Works and its predecessors in this function (the Board of Harbor Commissioners, to 1879, the Board of Harbor and Land Commissioners, 1879-1916, and the Dept. of Public Works as a whole, 1927-1938), employed engineers to review license and permit proposals, examine work completed under licenses, determine volume of displaced tidewater for which compensation was required, make other investigations as authorized, and submit reports such as these on their findings.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically. Arranged by license no. Arranged chronologically in reverse order. Arranged alphabetically by municipality (N-R only) Arranged chronologically in reverse order
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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).
Notes: Transferred to Archives from Metropolitan District Commission
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