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.  Series was created to record management of its appropriation.
Arrangement: In four subseries: (1) Cashbook  (2) Journal  (3) Salary list  (4) Ledger
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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.  The institution managed an annual budget to sustain operations.  Attendant financial recoreds include these four fragmentary subseries.
Arrangement: Arranged in four subseries: (1) Bank account books, 1884-1892  (2) Check stubs, 1894-1895 (3) Bills, 1874-1875 (4) Inventory, 1880
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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.
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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.  The institution managed an annual budget to sustain operations.  Attendant financial records include annual financial statements summarizing financial transactions and worth of the school.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Statement for 1882 lacking
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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 chronologically
Notes: Transferred to Archives from Metropolitan District Commission
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Scope and Content: Series documents the official acquisition, betterment, or disposal of fixed assets.  Annual inventories identify office equipment and furniture in the governor’s department, with information on missing items, surplus items, and office floor plans. –Series currently includes files from terms of William Weld (1991-1997), Argeo Paul Cellucci (1997-2001), Jane Swift (2001-2003), and Mitt Romney (2003-2007)
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: In 1999, the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s (MCC) Folk Arts and Heritage Program succeeded the Folklife and Ethnic Arts Program, 1987-1992. Since then it has documented, presented, and supported cultural expression based on shared ethnicity, religious belief, occupational tradition, or sense of place. It identifies and documents craftspeople, performers, and cultural specialists; and seeks to help sustain the practice of tradition where they live and to increase appreciation of their artistry within the community and beyond. The program has established an ongoing regimen of documentary fieldwork, provided direct support to individual artists through Artist Fellowships and Traditional Arts Apprenticeships, and created visibility for traditional artists through print media, radio broadcasts, and bookings at regional folk festivals. The collection generated by the Folk Arts and Heritage Program comprises unique primary source materials (primarily audio recordings, visual documentation, and interviews) documenting the traditional culture, beliefs, occupational skills, and expressive traditions of cultural communities from all across Massachusetts. Series consists of materials generated by folklore field research conducted by the MCC staff folklorist, interns, and contracted professional folklorists and photographers. Field research focuses on the traditional and vernacular music, dance, crafts, and material culture of the people of Massachusetts, from long-settled to new immigrant communities

St 1989, c 653, ss 14-16 abolished the Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities and the Massachusetts Arts Lottery Council, combining their functions in the MCC, effective 1990, within the office of the state treasurer. The gubernatorially-appointed council is mandated to review facilities, activities, and needs of public and private institutions in the Commonwealth and to fund programs concerned with the arts, humanities, and interpretive sciences. The council pursues this mission through a combination of grant programs, partnerships, and services for nonprofit cultural organizations, schools, communities, and artists. The council’s functions are currently described in MGLA c 10, ss 52-58

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AFS Folklore Collection database
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Arrangement:
Items arranged first by individual fieldworker and then chronologically within each smaller grouping.

At the item-level, titles include a unique identifier which includes the initials of the field worker or intern, the year in which the subject file was created, and a number which indicated the subject’s order in the interviews conducted for that particular year. Folders are arranged within this scheme.

Conditions Governing Access:
This series has no restrictions to access.

Related Collections
Massachusetts folklife interview files. AF10/870X
Massachusetts folklife audiocassettes. AF10/871X

Scope and Content: The Experimental School for Teaching and Training Idiotic Children conducted at the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind from 1848 was incorporated by Massachusetts as the Massachusetts School for Idiotic and Feeble-Minded Youth in 1850.  It was renamed Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded in 1883 and Walter E. Fernald State School in 1925.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: State oversight of treatment for drug abuse in Massachusetts was successively the responsibility of the Drug Addiction Rehabilitation Board, established 1963 in the Dept. of Public Health, and of the Division of Drug Rehabilitation, established 1969 in the department of the attorney general, transferred to the Dept. of Mental Health effective 1971, and then to the Dept. of Public Health, effective 1982.  In 1986 the division was merged with that department’s Division of Alcoholism to form (as of 1989) the Division of Substance Abuse Services.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically (some overlap), thereunder successively by region, area, and facility
Restrictions: Personal data restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 4, s 7, d 26(c) and c 66A. For conditions of access consult repository
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Scope and Content: The Office of Federal State Relations and a predecessor unit under the coordinator of intergovernmental relations have been responsible for relations among the governor, federal government, cities and towns of Massachusetts, and other states.  From 1974 it was  under the administration of the lieutenant governor. Since at least 2007 the responsibility for this function has been assigned to a senior advisor on the governor’s staff.  The Washington office, which serves as the primary intermediary between state officials and the Massachusetts Congressional delegation and as liaison between the state and federal governments,  is currently called the Office of Federal State Relations for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Notes: Issues for 1986-1988 lacking
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