Scope and Content: Programs and institutions for the mentally ill and retarded of Massachusetts were among the responsibilities successively of the Board of State Charities (St 1863, c 240), State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity (St 1879, c 291), and State Board of Lunacy and Charity (St 1886, c 101).  They were then the sole responsibility successively of the State Board of Insanity (St 1898, c 433), Massachusetts Commission on Mental Diseases (St 1916, c 285), Dept. of Mental Diseases (St 1919, c 350, ss 79-81), and Dept. of Mental Health (St 1938, c 486)
Notes: Volume 3 (1894-1901) was (M-Ar)414X
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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: In three subseries: (1) Boston, 1848-1869 (23 volumes) (2) Boston, 1863-1891 (95 volumes) (3) Other ports, 1869-1872 (1 volume); Arranged within each subseries chronologically
Notes: Also known as: Alien passenger lists. Forms part of: Alien passenger records
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Scope and Content: Programs and institutions for the mentally ill and retarded of Massachusetts were among the responsibilities successively of the Board of State Charities (St 1863, c 240), State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity (St 1879, c 291), and State Board of Lunacy and Charity (St 1886, c 101).  They were then the sole responsibility successively of the State Board of Insanity (St 1898, c 433), Massachusetts Commission on Mental Diseases (St 1916, c 285), Dept. of Mental Diseases (St 1919, c 350, ss 79-81), and Dept. of Mental Health (St 1938, c 486)
Arrangement: In 2 subseries: (1) Register of patients in private hospitals (2) Register of patients in McLean Hospital; Arranged within each subseries by institution, thereunder chronologically or numerically
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Scope and Content: Although Massachusetts municipal clerks were already required to record births and deaths (St 1692-3, c 48 and St 1795, c 9) and marriages (St 1786, c 3),  it was not until the passage of St 1842, s 95, s 1 that they were instructed to forward this data to the state secretary annually (May through April), on forms provided by him.  At that time whole numbers of births, marriages, and deaths were reported, and for deaths, each name, sex, age, occupation (for males), and cause of death.  St 1844, c 159, s 1 provided for detailed enumeration of each of the three categories–for births: date of birth, place, name, sex, parent names and residence, father’s occupation, and date of record; for marriages: date of marriage, place, name/residence/station of marrying official, name/residence/age/marital status/occupation of each party, parent names, and date of record; for deaths: date of death, name, sex, marital status, age, occupation, place of death, birthplace, parent names, cause of death, and date of record. –St 1849, c 202 provided for a return from May 1848 through Jan. 1850, with succeeding annual returns to be for the calendar year.  GS 1860, c 21, s 1 added for births: color and parent birthplaces; for marriages: color and birthplaces; for deaths: color, residence, parent birthplaces, and place of burial (cf. PS 1882, c 32, s 1).  St 1887, c 202, s 5 added for deaths: name of husband if married woman.  St 1890, c 402, s 1 added for deaths: mother’s maiden name, maiden name if married woman.  St 1897, c 444, s 1 added for births: mother’s maiden name; for marriages: number of marriage, mother’s maiden name, maiden name if widowed or divorced woman; for deaths: cemetery where buried, maiden and husband’s names if widowed or divorced woman (cf. RS 1902, c 29, s 1) –St 1903, c 305, s 1 provided for the monthly returns of deaths by municipal clerks to the state secretary. St 1904, c 415 made similar provision for births and marriages, but this was not implemented until 1918, as confirmed by an attorney general opinion, Sept. 10, 1918. –St 1976, c 486 transferred state record-keeping responsibilities for vital records from the state secretary to a Registry of Vital Records and Statistics within the Dept. of Public Health.
Arrangement: By category, thereunder chronologically by span, 1841-1850, thereafter in five-year spans. Arranged overall by volume no.: chronologically by year, thereunder by category, and then alphabetically by county and then by municipality. Arranged chronologically by year, thereunder by category, and then alphabetically by municipality
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Scope and Content: Since 1971 the Executive Office of Human Services (Executive Office of Health and Human Services since 1992) has been responsible through its constitutent agencies for the delivery of a wide range of services to persons with financial, health, social, protective, rehabilitation, and correctional needs. Its role is one of management and fiscal oversight, coordination of interagency planning and program development, and policy analysis.  The executive office’s legal counsel reviews and approves regulations promulgated (MGLA c 30A) by agencies under its aegis to implement applicable law.  Series is created to support this process.
Arrangement: Arranged by agency
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Scope and Content: The Subdivision of Research and Statistics was established in the Division of Aid and Relief (Dept. of Public Welfare) in 1937.  By 1939 it was renamed Bureau of Research and Statistics and by 1940 was an independent unit within the department.  It was renamed successively: Division of Research and Planning (1970), Division of Statistics and Analysis (1971), Office of Research and Planning (mid-1970s), Office of Research and Evaluation (1979), and Office of Research, Evaluation, and Planning (1983)
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by subject/title
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Scope and Content: The State Board of Health as part of its function to control and prevent disease required municipal boards of health to notify the board of the occurrence of a case of smallpox within twenty-four hours (St 1883, c 138).  Reports record this required information, as well as similar information from other state agencies.
Arrangement: In two subseries: (1) Massachusetts reports; arranged chronologically; (2) Other reports; arranged chronologically in reverse order
Notes: Spine title: Notices–malarial fever and smallpox
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Scope and Content: The State Reform School was founded in 1847 and opened in 1848 at Westborough for the instruction, discipline, employment, and reform of male juvenile offenders in Massachusetts.  It was renamed the Lyman School for Boys in 1884 and closed in 1972.  During the period 1895-1911 it was administered by the Trustees of the Lyman and Industrial Schools, who held monthly meetings to vote on decisions concerning the school and its students.  Reports issued to the superintendent are abstracts of trustee minutes, documenting decisions regarding the status of individual students and the administration of the school.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Deposited in the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College, May 7, 1976.  Transferred to Archives, November 11, 1982
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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.  Inmates were placed out on trial (often subsequently indentured) with families (originally by school inspectors–St 1866, c 209, s 7; then by school trustees–St 1880, c 208, s 1) and periodically monitored by the visiting agent of the Board of State Charities (St 1869, c 453, s 2; St 1870, c 359, s 2–in which called State Visiting Agency) and from 1879 by the Division of Visiting, Dept. of Indoor Poor, State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity (State Board of Lunacy and Charity from 1886); they were returned to school if arrangements were not mutually satisfactory (St 1870, c 359, s 3).  Series was created to administer this process, consisting of reports filed by visiting agents on inmates visited.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: Resolves 1858, c 26 appointed a committee to investigate and issue a report on public charitable institutions.The report recommended the founding of a Board of State Charities. The board and its successors from 1863 onward oversaw the Massachusetts state immigration and pauper relief functions, as well as the state’s charitable and correctional institutions.  Upon his appointment to the board as secretary in 1863, F.B. Sanborn set out to learn about and report on the charitable institutions in existence, including their objectives, history, annual cost, and results. This series, presumably created by the 1858 committee and by Sanborn, contains such compiled data, similar to that found in the board’s later annual reports ((M-Ar)1318S) per St 1867, c 209. –Vol. 1, arranged by county, gives summary tabular information, 1858-1863, on poor relief and almshouses for each town, including annual statistics on numbers served, costs and expenditures per person, and assessment of town property values. –Vol. 2 contains a narrative history of paupers and almshouses in Massachusetts, along with statistics and tables, including almshouse costs. Back of volume contains brief minutes of an 1865 meeting of the Commissioners on the Hours of Labor, of which Sanborn was also secretary (see its Administrative files ((M-Ar)1692X))
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