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 governor and council made an appropriation for an exhibition of arts, industries, and institutions of the Commonwealth at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia (Resolves 1875, c 71).  This series was created to register visitors to the Massachusetts building at the exhibition.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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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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Scope and Content: By its constitutional authority to provide advice and consent to the governor, the Council approves warrants authorizing expenditures from the Treasury (Const Pt 2, C 2, S 1, Art 11).  Bound registers list warrants authorized by the governor and council in a given year.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by year
Notes: Registers for 1847 to 1893 missing
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Scope and Content: The Massachusetts Bureau of Immigration was established in 1917.  It was replaced by the Division of Education of Aliens in the Department of Education in 1919, renamed the Division of Immigration and Americanization in 1920.
Arrangement: In two subseries: (1) Registers of ships, 1870-1932 (2) Registers of passengers, 1925-1930
Notes: Collated: 192- -193-. Transferred to Archives from State Library, Aug. 1992; subseries (2) possibly transferred earlier.
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Scope and Content: The Board of Registration of Medicine, established in 1894, was placed within the Division of Registration (Dept. of Civil Service and Registration) in 1919.  It was replaced by the Board of Registration and Discipline in Medicine as of 1976, renamed the Board of Registration in Medicine again in 1979.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Restrictions: Restricted series: Personal and personal medical information restricted by statutory provision; MGLA c 4, s 7, cl 26(c) and c 66A. For conditions of access, consult repository.
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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)
Notes: Volume 3 (1894-1901) was (M-Ar)414X
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