Scope and Content: The State Board of Health, established in 1869, was abolished in 1879, and its functions absorbed by the State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity until 1886, when its was re-established. It was succeeded in turn by the State Department of Health in 1914 and the Department of Public Health in 1919.
Notes: Spine title: Records
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Scope and Content: The Worcester City Hospital was established by state mandate in 1871, reconstituted in 1953, placed under the Worcester Health and Hospitals Authority in 1990, and closed in 1991.  It was then placed under interim management of the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and since the authority’s dissolution in 1993 has been operated as the center’s City Campus.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: State responsibility for the insane was assigned to the State Board of Lunacy and Charity per St 1886, c 101. In an era of heavy immigration, Massachusetts sought to relieve taxpayers of the burden of supporting insane persons originating from other states or countries, who were being cared for in Massachusetts state institutions. The board’s Committee on the Removal of Insane Persons out of the State (board chair, vice-chair, and one other board member–first mentioned in the board’s 1894 annual report (p.4)) proposed names of those to be returned to their place of origin; these recommendations were acted on by the board at its monthly meeting and implemented by the Superintendent of Indoor Poor. The State Board of Lunacy and Charity was replaced by the State Board of Insanity in 1898.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: As part of his responsibility as the supervisor of the Walter E. Fernald State School serving mentally retarded persons in Massachusetts, Dr. Malcom J. Farrel sat as a member of the Advisory Committee on Mental Hygiene and Community Activities of the Department of Mental Health.  The minutes document decisions on applications for federal assistance for community mental health projects.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically, thereunder by agency or subject
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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.  St 1852, c 275, s 6 provided for gubernatorial appointment of a three-member Board of Inspectors to establish and enforce almshouse rules and regulations, monitored through weekly visits; to bind out minor inmates as apprentices; and to return inmates to their place of origin.   St 1866, c 209, s 2 gave the board similar powers over inmates at the State Primary School, established at the almshouse in 1866 and providing lodging, instruction, and employment of dependent and neglected children under age sixteen without settlement in the Commonwealth and some juvenile offenders.  St 1872, c 45, s 4 continued the school under the same board after the almshouse closing.  Series documents monthly meetings of the board until three years before its abolition and replacement by the Trustees of the State Primary and Reform Schools per St 1879, c 291.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by meeting date
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Scope and Content: The Reformatory Prison for Women was opened in Sherborn in 1977.  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 chronologically by date of meeting
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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 Massachusetts state prison until replaced by Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Walpole, 1955-1956.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Transferred to Archives from MCI Walpole, 1981
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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: In two subseries: (1) Prisoners escaped (2) Prisoners transferred; Arranged by inmate number
Restrictions: Criminal offender record information restricted by statutory provision; MGLA c 6, ss 167-178. For conditions of access consult repository
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: Cushing Hospital in Framingham, Mass., intended for the care and custody of elderly persons, was purchased by the Commonwealth from the federal government in 1955, opened in 1957 under the Dept. of Mental Health, transferred to the Dept. of Public Health in 1984, and closed in 1991.
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by committee name, thereunder chronologically
Restrictions: Mental health client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 123, s 36. For conditions of access consult repository
Notes: Transferred to Archives by Tewksbury Hospital, Tewksbury, Mass., Mar. 1999
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