Scope and Content: Julia Ward Stickley, a staff member of the National Archives, researched the life of Deborah Sampson Gannett, a Massachusetts resident who, disguised as a man, enlisted as Robert Shurtliff in the 4th Massachusetts Regiment of the Continental Army.  Gannett served in several battles and was injured and hospitalized, when her sex was discovered and she was honorably discharged from military service.  Series gathers copies of Stickley’s research sources and correspondence concerning Gannett.
Notes: Presented to Archives by Julia Ward Stickley, July 1984
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Scope and Content: The State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester, established in 1832 and opened in 1833, was successively renamed Worcester Lunatic Hospital in 1862, Worcester Insane Hospital in 1898, and Worcester State Hospital in 1909.
Notes: Presented to Archives by Peter Wackell, July 16, 1993; previously acquired by him as deaccessioned by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, which had acquired the volumes from the Worcester State Hospital
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Scope and Content: The Metropolitan Park Commission (MPC) (1893-1919) and its successor the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) (since 1919) have been responsible for oversight of the acquisition, maintenance, policing, and use of land for the Metropolitan Parks District (Boston and surrounding communities).  Series is created to document reservation land, parkways, and buildings owned and operated by the commissions.
Arrangement: Arranged by location
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Scope and Content: Massachusetts has administered water works and sewage disposal for the Boston metropolitan area successively through the Board of Metropolitan Sewerage Commissioners (Metropolitan Sewerage Commission) (1889-1901) and the Metropolitan Water Board (1895-1901); the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board (1901-1919); and the Water and Sewerage Divisions of the Metropolitan District Commission (1919-1985).  Since 1985, the sewerage works functions have been assigned to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), and the water works functions have been shared by the MWRA (distribution) and the Metropolitan District Commission (to 2003) and the Dept.  of Conservation and Recreation (since 2003) (water supply reservoirs and their watershed management).
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by reservoir
Notes: Transferred to Archives from Metropolitan District Commission
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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.
Arrangement: In five subseries
Restrictions: Mental retardation client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 123B, s 17. For conditions of access consult repository
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Scope and Content: The General Court oversaw the surveying, sale, and other disposition of Massachusetts public lands in the District of Maine from 1781, and after its separation as a state in 1819 until 1861–to 1801 through a succession of appointive bodies generically known as the Committee for the Sale of Eastern Lands, and then through various land agents/commissioners designated in 1816 as the Land Office.  Resolves 1802, c 113 (1803) directed the state secretary to publish 300 copies of a transcript kept by the land agents of resolves and other legislative documents relating to such lands.  Series includes transcript (to Mar. 8, 1803), published resolves, and a second similar compilation identified as being printed by order of the legislature of Feb. 14, 1811 (see below)
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Forms part of: Eastern Lands papers
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Scope and Content: On June 17, 1774, in Salem, the Massachusetts House of Representatives and the General Court’s upper house (Council) passed a resolve directing 500 pounds be paid out of the public treasury to finance the activities of a legislatively appointed committee to join with other similar colonial bodes to meet jointly in September (which became the First Continental Congress). Governor Gage refused to sign the resolve and prorogued the House.  It then proceeded to pass three additional resolves that were reprinted in this broadside transmitted to the various towns and districts of the Province of (the) Massachusetts Bay, one apportioning the 500 pounds to be raised among the towns instead, another asking the provincial inhabitants to come to the rescue of those of Charlestown and Boston from the British-imposed blockade of Boston Harbor, and a third for inhabitants to boycott all goods imported from the East Indies or Great Britain. This copy signed by Samuel Adams, clerk. –See: Massachusetts. Office of the Secretary of State. House journal, June 17, 1774 ((M-Ar)1701X)
Restrictions: Access by permission of the state archivist or curator of Massachusetts Archives only
Notes: Deposited at the Archives on permanent loan by the Town of Templeton (Mass.), as per agreement of Aug. 19, 1974
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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 Resource Inventory Project was undertaken to provide information on resources controlled by or available to the office to aid it in carrying out its responsibilities.
Arranged: Arranged numerically by area
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Scope and Content: The Board to Investigate the Subject of the Unemployed inquired into the subject of the unemployed in Massachusetts and measures for their relief by the Commonwealth and its municipalities.  To further its investigations the board conducted a survey of private and public sector employers and union officials from throughout the state, as recorded in this series. –Subseries (1) contains survey data in tabular form by occupation: no. persons employed (male, female, total) and unemployed (male, female, total) by month for 1892-1893.  Relationship to series survey itself and to data from: Transcript of hearings ((M-Ar)1354X) unclear. –Subseries (2) contains completed questionnaires or equivalent letters from employers/union officials responding to a series of queries (as used in series ((M-Ar)1354X cited above) regarding levels of employment/unemployment and wages/trade-union benefits paid, 1892-1894.
Arrangement: In two subseries: (1) Abstracts of employment, 1892-1893; arranged alphabetically by occupation (2) Responses to questions, 1894-1895; arranged alphabetically by respondent.
Notes: Subseries (1): possibly collated in 1894
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Scope and Content: The Dept. of Mental Health is responsible for mentally ill persons in Massachusetts (and for mentally retarded persons until 1986, when the Dept. of Mental Retardation was established) through a comprehensive program of services and facilities. The department conducts research to assist in its planning, review, and delivery of services to clients and to prepare reports mandated by the legislature, including collection of data about clients and statistics from public and private institutions providing residential care. This includes gathering data on the use of restraint and seclusion as a therapeutic procedure for patients endangering themselves or others, institutionalized at facilities under the department’s jurisdiction.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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