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 chronologically
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Scope and Content: The Board of State Charities  from 1863 oversaw the Massachusetts state immigration and pauper relief functions, as well as the state’s charitable and correctional institutions. In 1866 the board appointed a visiting agent, under its secretary, to track and visit state wards sent out to indenture. The Visiting Agency was made a separate department within the board  in 1869 to investigate applicants wanting to adopt or indenture children, approve placements, conduct visits of children that were adopted, indentured, or otherwise placed out, and provide ongoing follow-up. Visitation work was continued by the Dept. of Indoor Poor within the successor agencies the State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity in 1879 and State Board of Lunacy and Charity in 1886 (through Division of State Minor Wards from 1898, carrying over into the State Board of Charity), and then by the State Board of Charity in 1898.
Arrangement: Arranged by case no
Notes: Contents (Volume numbers. assigned on basis of page numbering/gaps in paging): volumes 2–501-1000, volumes 3–1001-1500, volumes  4–1501-2000, volumes 6–2501-3000, volumes 7–3001-3500, volumes 8–3501-4000, volumes 10–4501-5000, volumes 11–5001-5500, volumes 13–6001-6500, volumes 16–7501-8000, volumes 17–8001-8500, volumes 19–9001-9500, volumes 22-24–10501-12000, volumes 27–13001-13500, volumes 29–14001-14500, volumes 30–14501-15000, volumes 32–15501-16000, volumes 33–16001-16500, volumes 35–17001-17500, volumes 36–17501-18000, volumes 38–18501-19000, volumes 39–19001-19500, volumes 41-44–20001-22000, volumes 46–22501-23000, volumes 48-53–23501-25500
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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 chronologically
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Scope and Content: The Massachusetts State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity, which had oversight of state charitable institutions, 1879-1886, was directed by St 1882, c 181 to receive orphaned, poor, or neglected children without local settlement committed to its care by the Massachusetts courts. Series provides summary statistics kept by Inspector of Charities F.B. Sanborn of such children served under the board. The volumes contains separate sections with information on those receiving services from the board’s Dept. of Outdoor Poor (foundlings and indigent children under the age of three, persons having children in charge) and from the Dept. of Indoor Poor (neglected and indigent children over the age of three).
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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.  Series was created to log incoming correspondence and track replies thereto.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by date of receipt
Notes: Spine title: Letter register
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Scope and Content: Massachusetts state almshouse inspectors had the power to place out for indenture minor almshouse inmates per St 1852, c 275, s 7. From 1863 they came under the jurisdiction of the Board of State Charities, which oversaw the Massachusetts state immigration and pauper relief functions, as well the state’s charitable and correctional (reformatory only from 1870) institutions. In 1866 the board appointed a visiting agent, under its secretary, to track and visit state wards sent out to indenture. The Visiting Agency was made a separate department within the board  in 1869 to investigate applicants wanting to adopt or indenture children, approve placements, conduct visits of children that were adopted, indentured, or otherwise placed out, and provide ongoing follow-up. Visitation work was continued by the Dept. of Indoor Poor, responsible for adults in state institutions and juvenile wards of the state over three years of age,  upon formation of the successor State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity in 1879.
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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.
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Scope and Content: Regulation of immigration into Massachusetts was successively the responsibility of the superintendents of alien passengers, 1848-1869 (for Boston, 1848-1863) and more generally the Board of Alien Passengers, 1851-1863; the Board of State Charities through its general agent’s Subdept. of Immigration and Local Business, 1863-ca. 1869 and Subdept. of Immigration, ca. 1869-1879; and the State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity, 1879-1886, and State Board of Lunacy and Charity, 1886-1891, through their Division of Immigration, Dept. of Indoor Poor, from 1882 under contract to the U.S. Treasury Dept.  Per the federal  Acts of 1891, c 155, immigration authority was transferred from the states to the federal government.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Spine title: Register of vessels. Forms part of: Alien passenger records
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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.  Series was created to administer and record their admission to and discharge from the institution on a weekly basis.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Volume 1: Oct. 1876-Sept. 1882. Volume 2: Sept. 1882-July 1890. Volume 3: Aug. 1890-June 1895. Reel GSU 451: Oct. 1876-Feb. 1895.  Reel GSU 452: Feb.-June 1895
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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.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Formerly designated (when held in agency) as: Trustee attendance registers ((M-Ar)N153X)
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