Scope and Content: The State Board of Lunacy and Charity, formed per St 1886, c 101, through its 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 of juvenile wards of the state under three years of age. Outdoor Poor oversaw funding for sick state poor, temporary aid, wife settlement, burial, foundlings and infants, auditing of claims, and contagious diseases. It was succeeded by the State Board of Charity’s Division of State Adult Poor, whose outdoor department continued to provide supervision and reimbursement for programs of public relief administered by local authorities. Expanded benefits per St 1913, c 763, ss 5-7 provided relief to mothers with dependent children under the age of fourteen. The Division of State Adult Poor’s outdoor department  was succeeded in 1919 by the Subdivision of Settlements of the Division of Aid and Relief, Dept. of Public Welfare; the division’s indoor department was succeeded by the Subdivision of Social Service of the Division of Aid and Relief.
Restrictions: Personal information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 4, s7, d 26(c), c 66A. For conditions of access consult repository
Notes: 1886 lacks volume for sick state poor. 1907, 1932/1933-1934/1935 lack volumes for Boston
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Scope and Content: The Reformatory Prison for Women was opened in Sherborn in 1877.  It was renamed the Reformatory for Women by St 1911, c 181, and because of a redrawn boundary line its fuller designation was changed from the Reformatory for Women at Sherborn to the Reformatory for Women at Framingham by St 1932, c 180, s 24.  Under St 1955, c 770 it received its current name, the Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Framingham.
Arrangement: Arranged by inmate case no
Notes: Reel GSU 473: 1877-Mar. 1906.  Reel GSU 474: Mar. 1906-1926
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Scope and Content: The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts appointed a Court Monitor in 1979 to administer court consent decrees relating to five state schools for the mentally retarded. In 1986 the responsibility was transferred to the gubernatorially established Office of Quality Assurance for the Mental Retardation Consent Decrees. In 1993 oversight was transferred to a Governor’s Commission  on Mental Retardation, while specific quality assurance functions were placed under an Office of Quality Enhancement, Office of Quality Management, Dept. of Mental Retardation, which had taken over responsibility for the mentally retarded from the Dept. of Mental Health in 1986.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Restrictions: Mental retardation client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 123B, s 17. For conditions of access consult repository
Notes: From the records of the Governor’s Commission on Mental Retardation, transferred to  Archives, 1994-2008. For details consult the Massachusetts Archives series control file
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Scope and Content: The State Prison was opened in 1805 at Charlestown, Boston, as a successor to the prison on Castle Island.  During 1878-1884 the prison was closed and inmates kept at Concord.  With that exception, Charlestown remained the state prison until replaced by Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Walpole, 1955-1956.
Arrangement: Volume 2 Arranged chronologically. arranged by vendor, thereunder chronologically
Notes: Transferred to Archives from MCI Walpole, 1981
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Scope and Content: The Division of State Adult Poor was established in Massachusetts under the State Board of Lunacy and Charity in 1898, shortly thereafter continued under the State Board of Charity. It was succeeded by the Division of Aid and Relief in the Dept. of Public Welfare in 1919. That division was replaced by the Division of Public Assistance in 1953, which continued until departmental reorganization in 1971. The Division of Aid and Relief was responsible for the welfare of adult poor without legal settlement, either confined to state medical facilities or provided with public relief by local authorities.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: The Division of State Adult Poor was established in Massachusetts under the State Board of Lunacy and Charity in 1898, shortly thereafter continued under the State Board of Charity. It was succeeded by the Division of Aid and Relief in the Dept. of Public Welfare in 1919. That division was replaced by the Division of Public Assistance in 1953, which continued until departmental reorganization in 1971. The Division of Aid and Relief was responsible for the welfare of adult poor without legal settlement, either confined to state medical facilities or provided with public relief by local authorities.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: The Division of State Adult Poor was established under the State Board of Lunacy and Charity in 1898 (shortly thereafter continued under the State Board of Charity).  It was succeeded by the Division of Aid and Relief in the Dept. of Public Welfare in 1919.  That division was replaced by the Division of Public Assistance in 1953, which continued until departmental reorganization in 1971.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Restrictions: Personal information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 4, s7, d 26(c), c 66A. For conditions of access consult repository
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Scope and Content: In Massachusetts, the Board of State Charities at the time of its creation in 1863 had a department of settlement and bastardy, which was responsible for prosecuting cases of bastardy to provide support for affected children. With the formation of State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity in 1879, the board split its duties among four departments: health, lunacy, indoor poor, and outdoor poor; with indoor poor responsible for bastardy cases. The State Board of Lunacy and Charity, formed per St 1886, c 101, continued as its predecessor with departments of indoor poor and outdoor poor. In 1898 this was changed with the establishment within the board of a division of state adult poor (with indoor and outdoor units) and a division of state minor wards, both of which were continued under the State Board of Charity, which was established per St 1898, c 433 by separating out a State Board of Insanity. The State Board of Charity was assigned by this act to the prosecution of all cases of bastardy of non-settled persons. St 1919, c 350 established the Dept. of Public Welfare as successor to the State Board of Charity, with divisions of aid and relief and of child guardianship, the latter division a successor to state minor wards. –St 1906, c 501 directed fines for non-support of children be paid to the state board of charity if the minor child was under its custody. St 1911, c 456 included mothers as also potentially responsible, and increased term of payments to up to two years, with fines payable to probation officers, city treasurers, or legal representatives of the wives or minor children. St 1913, c 563 authorized courts to issue orders compelling the father to provide support to the mother or probation officer for confinement or care of the child. St 1918, c 199 allowed the money to be designated for support of the child.
Arrangement: In three alphabetical groupings: ledger, 1915-1916, folders 1916-1919, 1919-1928
Notes: Includes contents of former series (M-Ar)1654X
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Scope and Content: The State Almshouse at Monson provided residence for paupers without settlement in the Commonwealth from 1854 until 1872.  St 1855, c 446, s 4 and St 1856, c 108, s 5 provided that if paupers, lunatics, and idiots sent to the almshouses were ascertained to have settlement, the municipality of such settlement was liable for expenses incurred until their removal.  Series consist of statements from municipal overseers of the poor that inmate has or has not settlement, and that the municipality therefore is/is not liable for expenses and removal.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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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
Restrictions: Restricted as fragile. Access by permission of state archivist or curator of Massachusetts Archives only
Notes: Chronological overlap among vols.;  Files for 1933-1935, 1943-1951, 1963-1970 lacking
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