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.  The institution managed a farm to supply its own needs, with some modest sale of surplus, and recorded in this series financial transactions as part of an annual budget to sustain operations.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: Bridgewater, Mass., was the site successively of a State Almshouse (1854-1872) for so-called willing and needlessly dependent paupers, and the State Workhouse (1866-1887), for paupers convicted of misdemeanors as well as paupers generally (from 1872), and incorrigible juveniles (1869-1948). The State Workhouse was renamed the State Farm (1887-1955), which also included a State Farm Hospital for the medical needs of all inmates, as well as locals and poor admitted solely for medical treatment. The change in name was in deference to the admission of insane male paupers (1886), although it was  followed by the admission of aged and physically or mentally infirm inmates of the State Prison (1890). Insane admissions were then limited for a time to criminals (1894), forming a division called the State Asylum for Insane Criminals (1895), which was renamed Bridgewater State Hospital (1909). Units at Bridgewater were later added for female prisoners (1909-1930), so-called defective delinquents (males from 1922, females 1926-1954)–mentally impaired inmates requiring segregation from standard inmate or institutionalized populations–and for drug and alcohol addicts (from 1922, females to 1930 only), eventually mostly voluntary admissions. All Bridgewater State Farm facilities and divisions (including prison, almshouse, insane, and medical hospital functions) were administered by a common superintendent. The running of the State Farm, including industries and extensive agricultural operations, relied on work performed by all capable inmates.
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Scope and Content: Bridgewater, Mass., was the site successively of a State Almshouse (1854-1872) for so-called willing and needlessly dependent paupers, and the State Workhouse (1866-1887), for paupers convicted of misdemeanors as well as paupers generally (from 1872), and incorrigible juveniles (1869-1948). The State Workhouse was renamed the State Farm (1887-1955), which also included a State Farm Hospital for the medical needs of all inmates, as well as locals and poor admitted solely for medical treatment. The change in name was in deference to the admission of insane male paupers (1886), although it was  followed by the admission of aged and physically or mentally infirm inmates of the State Prison (1890). Insane admissions were then limited for a time to criminals (1894), forming a division called the State Asylum for Insane Criminals (1895), which was renamed Bridgewater State Hospital (1909). Units at Bridgewater were later added for female prisoners (1909-1930), so-called defective delinquents (males from 1922, females 1926-1954)–mentally impaired inmates requiring segregation from standard inmate or institutionalized populations–and for drug and alcohol addicts (from 1922, females to 1930 only), eventually mostly voluntary admissions. All Bridgewater State Farm facilities and divisions (including prison, almshouse, insane, and medical hospital functions) were administered by a common superintendent. The running of the State Farm, including industries and extensive agricultural operations, relied on work performed by all capable inmates.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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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 federal agencies and members of Congress concerning federal programs and state-federal matters.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by term, thereunder alphabetically by personal or agency name
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Scope and Content: The Greylock Park Association, established by the Massachusetts General Court per St 1885, c 166, was authorized to obtain and hold lands for a public park on Greylock Mountain in the towns of Adams, North Adams, and Williamstown. –St 1898, c 543 established the Greylock State Reservation and the Greylock Reservation Commission, a three person, governor-appointed board of Berkshire County residents responsible for acquiring land and administering the reservation. The act granted the commission the power and authority to care for, protect, and maintain the reservation on behalf of the Commonwealth. The act also required the Greylock Park Association to transfer title to its land to the Commonwealth, whereupon –The commission was specifically placed under the governor’s department by St 1933, c 336. St 1966, c 444 abolished the Greylock Reservation Commission and transferred the management and operation of Greylock State Reservation to the Dept. of Natural Resources.
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Scope and Content: To establish accurate Massachusetts town boundaries, beginning in 1885 the Topographical Survey Commission, in conjunction with the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, sent out field teams to establish and describe triangulation stations and to set monuments designating boundary lines.  These notebooks contain data recorded by such survey teams, for the commission, for the Board of Harbor and Land Commissioners, which took over the survey in 1901 and completed it in 1914, and beyond that date, for agencies succeeding the board in its responsibility for state surveying: the Commission on Waterways and Public Lands, in 1916; the Division of Waterways and Public Lands of the Department of Public Works, in 1919; the Department of Public Works as a whole, in 1927; and the department’s Division of Waterways, in 1938.
Arrangement: In two subseries: (1) Descriptions of triangulation stations; arranged by volume number, thereunder by locality (2) Horizontal angles; arranged by survey party, thereunder by locality
Notes: Provenance of books marked duplicate unclear
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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 numerically in order of examination
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Scope and Content: By its constitutional authority to provide advice and consent to the governor, the Council approves the granting of pardons, including commutations and respites (Const Pt 2, C 2, S 2, Art 8).  Pardon files include all relevant information concerning petitions for pardons and commutations that the Governor has denied or that have become inactive (and which therefore do not require Council endorsement but that are nonetheless maintained by the Council). –For 1907-1935 see: Massachusetts. Council. Council pardon files ((M-Ar)328). For a listing of other related series see: Massachusetts. Office of the Secretary of State. Records of commissions, proclamations, pardons, and other official documents, 1713-1945 (bulk 1747-1936) ((M-Ar)161X)
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by varying spans, thereunder alphabetically by petitioner
Restrictions: Correspondence: Evaluative information restricted by statutory provision; for conditions of access consult repository; MGLA c 4, s 7, c 26 (c ) and c 66A
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Scope and Content: The Dept. of Public Welfare has the responsibility to provide and administer a comprehensive public welfare financial assistance program (MGLA c 18, s 2). The commissioner of public welfare served as chair of the Massachusetts Committee for the Midcentury White House Conference on Children and Youth, which organized Massachusetts participation in the conference held in Washington, D.C. in 1950, creating this series.
Arrangement: Arranged by topic
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Scope and Content: The Court of Registration, established in 1898, was successively renamed the Court of Land Registration in 1900 and Land Court in 1904.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Spine title: Decrees Microfilm reel number 5 (October 1955-February 1956) missing
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