Scope and Content: St 1851, c 342 provided for a board of commissioners in relation to alien passengers and state paupers (as potentially related classes of persons), commonly called the Board of Alien Commissioners and consisting of a Council member appointed by the governor, the state auditor, and the superintendent of alien passengers for Boston. The first duty the act assigned was for the Board to appoint persons to annually visit almshouses and other institutions holding those alleged to be state paupers to determine whether laws pertaining to the status,  support, local settlement, and work requirements of such paupers were being upheld. The commissioners also worked towards the establishment of state almshouses (St 1852, c 275, ss 1-10). St 1863, c 240 transferred these functions to the succeeding Board of State Charities.
Arrangement: In six subseries
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Scope and Content: Under the Massachusetts State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity (1879-1886) and the State Board of Lunacy and Charity (1886-1898), the Dept. of Outdoor Poor was responsible for adults in need of state medical or general assistance not committed to state institutions under the board’s jurisdiction and for juvenile wards of the state under three years of age.  Visitors for the department’s unit for the sick state poor were charged with determining the status of and care for foundlings or other deserted children, as had been done earlier done under the Board of State Charities (see: its Massachusetts Infant Asylum case histories, 1871-1879 (M-Ar) 541X)). Attempts were made to identify the parents of the deserted children, in order to procure sources of child support.
Arrangement: Arranged by case no./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)
Arrangement: Arranged by institution, thereunder chronologically by date of inspection
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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: 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.  Sick inmates at the institutions were treated at their hospital.  Series was created to administer and record admission and discharge from the facility.
Arrangement: Arranged by case no./chronologically by admission date
Notes: Vols. 1-2 formerly separate series as almshouse hospital register
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Scope and Content: The Governor’s Office of Human Resources was established by Gov. Michael Dukakis in 1983 to act as a liaison between the governor and human service agencies in Massachusetts in the public and private sectors.  A Human  Resources Forum comprised of representatives of human services organizations in Massachusetts and members of the governor’s administration was established by this office in 1983 to provide a mechanism for obtaining feedback from human services organizations and workers and to foster legislative initiatives.  Series was created to organize meetings of the forum.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: Pursuant to MGLA c 19, the Dept. of Mental Health fulfills its responsibilities toward mentally ill persons in Massachusetts through a comprehensive program of services and facilities.  (It exercised a similar function for the mentally retarded until 1986, when a separate Dept. of Mental Retardation was established.)  In the early 1970s the department initiated a project to compile comprehensive information on mental health, mental retardation, and other human services available to residents of the thirty-nine mental health catchment areas of the state.  The project, originally planned by the Human Services Resources Information Register Task Force, was coordinated by a resource survey office in the central office of the department and by the Massachusetts Association for Mental Health, which worked with representatives of catchment areas to collect, edit, and verify information, and finally to compile area directories distributed by area offices.  (Originally an online information and referral system was also planned.)  Human services resource directory project files were created by staff of the Dept. of Mental Health central office in the course of planning, coordinating, and carrying out this project.
Arrangement: Arranged by region, thereunder by area, and then by facility
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Scope and Content: Pursuant to MGLA c 19, the Dept. of Mental Health fulfills its responsibilities toward mentally ill persons in Massachusetts through a comprehensive program of services and facilities.  (It exercised a similar function for the mentally retarded until 1986, when a separate Dept. of Mental Retardation was established.)  In the early 1970s the department initiated a project to compile comprehensive information on mental health, mental retardation, and other human services available to residents of the thirty-nine mental health catchment areas of the state.  The project, originally planned by the Human Services Resource Information Register Task Force, was coordinated by a resource survey office in  the central office of the department and by the Massachusetts Association for Mental Health, which worked with representatives of catchment areas to collect, edit, and verify information, and finally to compile area directories distributed by area offices.  (Originally an online information and referral system was also planned.)  Human services resource directory survey forms were sent to and collected from human service agencies throughout the state and were used as a basis for preparing area directories.
Arrangement: Arranged by region, thereunder by area
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Scope and Content: The Energy Facilities Siting Council oversees the provision of a necessary energy supply for the Commonwealth with a minimum impact on the environment at the lowest possible cost (MGLA c 164, s 69H).  The responsibility to license hydroelectric generating facilities was added by St 1979, c 804 (MGLA c 164, s 69H 1/2).  These case files are compiled during the licensing procedure.
Arrangement: Arranged by case number
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Scope and Content: Transfer of immigration authority from the states to the federal government occurred with the federal Acts of 1891, c 551. In Massachusetts, continuing state medical care of alien passengers was administered first by the State Board of Lunacy and Charity (1886-1898), and then by its successor, the State Board of Charity (from1898). A federal alien immigration act of Feb. 20, 1907 led to a July 1908 contract between the immigration office in the U.S. Treasury Dept. and the State Board of Charity, renewed July 1909, replacing a similar contract of Mar. 1894. It provided federal reimbursement for care at state hospitals or other suitable institutions until deportation, or until one year after entry into the United States–three years for those ordered deported whose need for public support predated their arrival. A contract of Aug. 1910 repealed previous terms, and indicated that the federal government would not pay alien hospital charges, except in cases where the government was paying for deportation with the consent of the alien concerned. Formal contracts with Massachusetts were discontinued as of Jan. 1, 1911. Hereafter Massachusetts, like other states, was to receive any payments at approved rates under federal immigration regulations.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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