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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