Scope and Content: As part of its function to design, construct, maintain and operate a Metropolitan Water Works (MWW) system as authorized by St 1895, c 488; St 1901, c 168; and St 1919, c 350, s 123, the Metropolitan Water Board (MWB) (1895-1901), the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board (MWSB), Water Works Division (1901-1919), and, later, of the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC), Water Division (1919-1985), photographs were created to document the real estate takings for, and the construction and operations of the Metropolitan Water Works (MWW) system.The name Metropolitan Water Works was designated for the system in St 1895, c 488, s 3, as was the name Metropolitan Water District. –Per St 1895, c 488, s 10, the Metropolitan Water Board was authorized to take control of maintenance and operations of portions of the Boston Water Board’s Water Works (BWW) system, from Chestnut Hill Reservoir and westward to the Sudbury River Watershed, and northward to Spot Pond (Stoneham) and Upper Mystic Lake (Winchester). (The name: Metropolitan Water Works is designated for the system in St 1895, c 488, s 3, as is the name: Metropolitan Water District.) Through this legislation, the MWB and MWSB inherited some photographic collections created by the Boston Water Board, and created by the City of Boston Engineering Department for the Boston Water Board.
Restrictions: Glass plate negatives are restricted: no public access
Notes: Series includes accessions from the Metropolitan District Commission (1980), Massachusetts Dept. of Conservation and Recreation (2014), and Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (2014). Materials integrated in 2014 to form present series, including transfers from:  Massachusetts. Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board. General photographs of the Metropolitan Water Works, 1916 ((M-Ar)887X–entire) and: Massachusetts. Metropolitan District Commission. Construction Division. Water and sewer construction photographs, 1876-1970 ((M-Ar)889X–boxes 1-2, 96-98, 100, and albums constituting subseries 2 of present series). Detailed preservation history of collection, including archival cleaning and rehousing of glass plate negatives (2000-2001) and rehousing of loose photographic prints (2001-2006) by DCR Archives available at electronic link. Detailed holdings summary by volume: about 7,841 negatives (about 7,839 dry plate glass negatives; 2 film negatives); 618 glass lantern slides; 71 (including 2 duplicates) bound volumes of photographic prints; about 1,089 loose photographic prints;  20 volumes of annotated MWB/MWSB annual reports, with MWW image nos.; annotated halftone tearsheets from MWB/MWSB annual reports, with MWW image nos. (1.5 sets); documents: MWW lantern slide lists (27-page document; 23-page document; other lists totaling 11 pages); Wachusett Dam design sketches (2), straight dam and curved dam, 1897. –Detailed holdings summary by dimension: dry plate glass negatives (87, 4″ x 5″); dry plate glass negatives (51, 5″ x 7″); dry plate glass negatives (12, 5″ x 8″); dry plate glass negatives (7,558, 6.5″ x 8.5″); dry plate glass negatives (134, 8″ x10″); film negative (3″ x 3.5″); film negative (7 13/16″ x 39.50″);  glass lantern slides (3.25″ x 4″); loose photographic prints (various sizes, but none larger than 28″ x 23″).
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Scope and Content: During the Civil War, Ship Island, Mississippi, served the Union Army as a place of detention for political prisoners, military convicts, and Confederate prisoners of war.  Series documents activities of Ship Island Provost Marshal James Noyes, successively lieutenant and captain in the 74th U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment.
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Scope and Content: In 1863 the Commissioners on Public Lands assumed full responsibility for the maintenance and care of the Mill Dam (now Beacon Street) and the roads and bridges connecting to it.  These roads constituted more than nine miles of roads in  Boston, Brookline, Watertown, and Brighton stretching over the Back Bay area that was filled in over the course of the 19th century.  At this time the commissioners also assumed the right to collect tolls that were put into a Mill Dam account and used to fund repairs and improvements and to build up a reserve of funds to be distributed to the municipalities in which the roads were situated when responsibility for the roads was transferred to them.  The commissioners kept these records of Mill Dam account revenues and expenditures.
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Scope and Content: As part of its function to maintain and supervise the harbors and wetlands of Massachusetts, the Board of Harbor Commissioners was required to account for its activities and expenditures.  Minute books of weekly meetings document measures taken by the board to protect the harbors and tidewaters and insure the navigability of the harbors.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by date of meeting
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Scope and Content: As part of their function to oversee Boston Harbor and Back Bay lands, the Commissioners on Public Lands (and their predecessors in this function until 1861, the Commissioners on the Back Bay) kept minute books to record their activities and expenditures.  Minutes of their weekly meetings document actions taken to fill and develop the Back Bay, including gaining rights and title to the area, selling and leasing the lands once filled, and laying streets and sewers.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by date of meeting
Notes: Volume 1, presumably containing minutes of the Commissioners on Boston Harbor and the Back Bay, 1852-1855, is lacking
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Scope and Content: In 1911 responsibility for the care and supervision of Boston Harbor was transferred from the Board of Harbor and Land Commissioners to the newly created Directors of the Port of Boston, who were also charged with developing the Port of Boston.  These minutes of their weekly meetings document their activities and decisions.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by date of meeting
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Scope and Content: As part of their function to maintain and supervise the harbors and lands of Massachusetts, the Division of Waterways of the Dept. of Public Works and its predecessors in this function (the Board of Harbor and Land Commissioners, to 1916, the Commission on Waterways and Public Lands, 1916-1919, the Division of Waterways and Public Lands of the Dept. of Public Works, 1919-1927, and the Dept. of Public Works as a whole, 1927-1938) were required to account for their activities and expenditures.  Minute books of weekly meetings document measures taken by commissioners to protect harbors and tidewaters and to insure the navigability of harbors.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by date of meeting; some chronologically in reverse order within year after 1943
Notes: Additional draft minutes, Apr. 1901-June 1902 (2 volumes), transferred from: Massachusetts. Executive Office of Transportation and Construction. Maps, aerials, photos, plans ((M-Ar)1758)) Docket books retained for 1967-1972 instead of minute books contain ms. annotations and are generally more complete. Minute books for 1939-1942 and 1947-1965 are missing
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Scope and Content: The Trustees of Massachusetts Hospitals for Consumptives (officially the Trustees of Hospitals for Consumptives) were established preliminarily in 1907, when they were known as the Massachusetts Commission on Hospitals for Consumptives, and permanently in 1910.  They were replaced by the Division of Sanitoria in the Department of Public Health in 1919, which agency was known successively by various names: by 1969, after it ceased to function at the divisional level, as the Division of Sanatoria and Tuberculosis Control.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Transferred from Department of Public Health (Tuberculosis Control), 1984
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Scope and Content: The Board of Registration in Dentistry, established in 1887, was replaced by the Board of Dental Examiners in 1915, placed within the Division of Registration in 1919.  It was replaced by the Board of Registration in Dentistry again in 1977.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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