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: 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: 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 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 an annual budget to sustain operations.  Attendant financial recoreds include these four fragmentary subseries.
Arrangement: Arranged in four subseries: (1) Bank account books, 1884-1892  (2) Check stubs, 1894-1895 (3) Bills, 1874-1875 (4) Inventory, 1880
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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 G. 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 still in litigation as of 2013.
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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 an annual budget to sustain operations.  Attendant financial records include annual financial statements summarizing financial transactions and worth of the school.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Statement for 1882 lacking
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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
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Scope and Content: State oversight of treatment for drug abuse in Massachusetts was successively the responsibility of the Drug Addiction Rehabilitation Board, established 1963 in the Dept. of Public Health, and of the Division of Drug Rehabilitation, established 1969 in the department of the attorney general, transferred to the Dept. of Mental Health effective 1971, and then to the Dept. of Public Health, effective 1982.  In 1986 the division was merged with that department’s Division of Alcoholism to form (as of 1989) the Division of Substance Abuse Services.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically (some overlap), thereunder successively by region, area, and facility
Restrictions: Personal data restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 4, s 7, d 26(c) and c 66A. For conditions of access consult repository
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Scope and Content: Metropolitan State Hospital opened in Waltham, Mass. in 1930 and was closed in 1992. Appropriations for a segregated children’s unit at the hospital were made as early as 1946 (St 1946, c 309, item 1701-13; see also St 1946, c 491). In 1954 a William C. Gaebler Children’s Unit was formally established, known some time after 1969 as the Gaebler Children’s Center. It was responsible for providing residential care and treatment to mentally ill children of Massachusetts under the age of sixteen.  Inpatient case files were created to provide a record of the commitment, diagnosis, treatment, and care of patients admitted to the unit.  Files consist of medical records based on admission date, 1958, 1974-1992, and commitment papers, 1945-1988. Pre-1974 medical records may be found in the hospital’s Inpatient case files ((M-Ar)2592X). Pre-1954 commitment papers found here are presumably taken from that series.
Restrictions: Mental health client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 123, s 36. For conditions of access consult repository
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Scope and Content: Metropolitan State Hospital opened in Waltham, Mass. in 1930 and was closed in 1992. Appropriations for a segregated children’s unit at the hospital were made as early as 1946 (St 1946, c 309, item 1701-13; see also St 1946, c 491). In 1954 a William C. Gaebler Children’s Unit was formally established, known some time after 1969 as the Gaebler Children’s Center. It was responsible for providing residential care and treatment to mentally ill children of Massachusetts under the age of sixteen. Policy and procedure manuals were created to promulgate and document policies and procedures (a) hospital (i.e., center) wide  (b) in Dept. of Nursing Services.
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