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.
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 State Almshouse at Monson provided residence for paupers without settlement in the Commonwealth from 1854 to 1872.  The State Primary School, opened at the almshouse in 1866 and continuing after its closing 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 consisting of incoming correspondence, generally addressed to the institutions’ superintendent, was maintained to administer them.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Formerly known as: General correspondence. Files for 1854-1871, 1878-1883, 1889-1890, 1892-1894 only
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Scope and Content: The Reformatory Prison for Women was opened in Sherborn in 1877.  It was renamed the Reformatory for Women by St 1911, c 181, and because of a redrawn boundary line its fuller designation was changed from the Reformatory for Women at Sherborn to the Reformatory for Women at Framingham by St 1932, c 180, s 24.  Under St 1955, c 770 it received its current name, the Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Framingham.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: The Reformatory Prison for Women was opened in Sherborn in 1877.  It was renamed the Reformatory for Women by St 1911, c 181, and because of a redrawn boundary line its fuller designation was changed from the Reformatory for Women at Sherborn to the Reformatory for Women at Framingham by St 1932, c 180, s 24.  Under St 1955, c 770 it received its current name, the Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Framingham.
Arrangement: Arranged by indenture number
Restrictions: Criminal offender record information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 6, ss 167-178. For conditions of access consult repository 
Notes: Spine title: Indenture book
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Scope and Content: The Reformatory Prison for Women was opened in Sherborn in 1877.  It was renamed the Reformatory for Women by St 1911, c 181, and because of a redrawn boundary line its fuller designation was changed from the Reformatory for Women at Sherborn to the Reformatory for Women at Framingham by St 1932, c 180, s 24.  Under St 1955, c 770 it received its current name, the Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Framingham.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Spine title: Indentures
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Scope and Content: The State Almshouse at Monson provided residence for paupers without settlement in the Commonwealth from 1854 to 1872.  The State Primary School, opened at the almshouse in 1866 and continuing after its closing until 1895, provided lodging, instruction, and employment for dependent and neglected children under age sixteen without settlement in the Commonwealth and some juvenile offenders.  Per St 1852, c 275, c 7, almshouse inspectors could place minor inmates out on trial with families, where they were often subsequently indentured.  Later school inmates were similarly placed (originally by school inspectors–1866, c 209, s 7; then by school trustees–St 1880, c 208, s 1).  If indenture or similar placement on a term basis was agreed upon, an indenture form or official agreement was drawn up between the inspectors/trustees and the person undertaking to train, educate, and board the inmate until his/her eighteenth birthday (originally twenty-first for boys).
Arrangement: In two subseries: (1) Indentures and agreements, 1854-1890 (2) Annulled indentures and agreements, 1861-1880; Arranged within each subseries chronologically
Notes: Both subseries likely incomplete; bulk of documents from 1860s and early 1870s.  Many records in duplicate, as originally drawn up. Reel GSU 448: Subseries (1), 1854-1857.  Reel GSU 449: Subseries (1), 1857-1866.  Reel GSU 450: Subseries (1), 1866-1890; Subseries (2)
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Scope and Content: The State Lunatic Hospital at Danvers, established in 1877, opened in 1878 as Danvers Lunatic Hospital.  It was renamed Danvers Insane Hospital in 1898 and Danvers State Hospital in 1909.  It was closed in 1992.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by Volume, thereunder alphabetically by name
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Scope and Content: The Psychopathic Dept. of Boston State Hospital was established in 1912.  It became Boston Psychopathic Hospital in 1920; that was renamed Massachusetts Mental Health Center in 1956.
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by patient.
Restrictions: Mental health client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 123, s 36. For conditions of access consult repository
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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 two subseries: (1) Index to passengers, 1848-1891; arranged alphabetically by first letter of vessel name. (2) Index to ships, 1868-1871; Arranged alphabetically by surname
Notes: Compiled under sponsorship of U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service by U.S. Works Progress Administration (WPA), 1935-1937. Forms part of: Alien passenger records. Volume 1: Oct. 1868-Dec. 1869.  Volume 2: Jan. 1870-Jan. 1871
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Scope and Content:Beginning with the 1875 decennial census the Bureau of Labor Statistics had the responsibility to collect and tabulate population and social statistics as well as to prepare the census of industrial statistics (St 1874, c 386).  Prior to the collection of data the schedule of the census was created by the bureau and presented to the governor and his council for approval.
Arrangement: Arranged by subject
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