Scope and Content: The Executive Office of Environmental Affairs creates and administers policy for the departments, commissions, and authorities concerned with the natural resources of Massachusetts.  Series is created to track agency input to and progress of proposed legislation in the General Court.
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by subject
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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 generally chronologically
Notes: Records for 1978, 1980-1986 lacking
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Scope and Content: The Governor’s Legislative Office is responsible for coordinating gubernatorial interaction with the legislature.  In fulfilling this function, it solicits and compiles advice, communicates with the General Court and its members, and records gubernatorial action on legislation sent for enactment.  Legislative review files are created to support these activities. –Series currently includes files from terms of Alvan Fuller (1925-1929), Leverett Saltonstall (1939-1945), Endicott Peabody (1963-1965), John Volpe (1965-1969), Francis Sargent (1969-1975), Michael Dukakis (1975-1979), Edward King (1979-1983), Michael Dukakis (1983-1991), William Weld (1991-1997), Argeo Paul Cellucci (1997-2001), Jane Swift (2001-2003), and Mitt Romney (2003-2007); also fragmentary files from 1933, 1935, 1937.
Arrangement: 1975-2000 files Arranged chronologically by year. Arranged thereunder by bill number. Arranged thereunder by chapter number within each
Notes: Fuller and Saltonstall files transferred to Archives from Special Collections, Massachusetts State Library, Feb. 13, 1996. Boxes 13-14 (Sargent) transferred from: Massachusetts. Governor. Subject files ((M-Ar)366X) Sargent, boxes 105-106. Volpe-Sargent files:1965-1967, 1969 lacking. Dukakis (1975-1979) files also known in part as: MSD 2/901-931. Swift-Romney files (2001-2004 only)
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Scope and Content: The Governor’s Office of Educational Affairs, established by Gov. Michael Dukakis in 1983, was intended to serve during his second administration as an official link to all public and private educational constituencies, and to support gubernatorial commitment to improving the quality of public education and delivery of all educational services.  Series was created to track and influence pending legislation and to advise the governor thereon.
Notes: Scheduled as: Legislation files
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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 was created to propose, develop, revise, and announce regulations required for the council and other bodies to implement MGLA c 21D (Hazardous Waste Facility Siting Act); and to monitor and analyze pertinent legislation.
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Scope and Content: Various bodies appointed for each gubernatorial term since 1971, beginning with the Governor’s Commission on the Status of Women, have been responsible for insuring adequate representation of the concerns of women in the laws governing Massachusetts and in the planning of services to women and children in the Commonwealth.  These subject files were created as part of the process of researching legislation and making recommendations to the governor and the General Court.
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by subject
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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
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: 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.  Per St 1852, c 275, c 7, almshouse inspectors could place minor inmates out on trial with families, where they were often subsequently indentured.  Later school inmates were similarly placed (originally by school inspectors–St 1866, c 209, s 7; then by school trustees–St 1880, c 208, s 1) and periodically monitored by the visiting agent of the Board of State Charities (St 1869, c 453, s 2; St 1870, c 359, s 2–in which called State Visiting Agency) and from 1879 by the Division of Visiting, Dept. of Indoor Poor, State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity (State Board of Lunacy and Charity from 1886).  These offices (and the almshouse inspectors before them) also visited and approved homes before placement, requiring recommendations on behalf of applicants for placed inmates (St 1869, c 453, s 3; St 1870, c 359, s 4).  Series was created to administer this process.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: The governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as chief executive of the state, is responsible for administration of the executive departments and agencies; approval or rejection of all legislative enactments; preparation of the state budget; appointment of state officials; and coordination of affairs among federal government, state, and cities and towns.  Letters official consist of letterpress copies of outgoing correspondence of the governor, chiefly from terms of John Andrew (1861-1866), relating to the administration of state government.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by year
Notes: Transferred to Adjutant General’s Office at unknown date.  Transferred by the office’s war records unit to State Library in 1960s and to Archives in 1981. Volumes numbered 1-417, with some irregularities. Files for 1871-1874 lacking
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