Scope and Content: As the unit responsible for managing the governor’s mail, the Governor’s Correspondence Office maintained these files of incoming mail and petitions from constituents on issues of general citizen concern.
Arrangement: In three subseries: (1) Constituent incoming mail; Arranged chronologically by term; arranged alphabetically by subject; arranged chronologically by year, thereunder alphabetically by subject (2) Issue papers; arranged alphabetically by subject  (3) Other correspondence; arranged alphabetically by subject
Restrictions: Personal information 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 Cambridge Bridge Commission was established in 1898 to administer construction of a bridge spanning the Charles River between Boston and Cambridge, to be known as the Cambridge (later Longfellow) Bridge.  Series documents stages and methods of construction through photographic prints, including cyanotypes.
Arrangement: Arranged numerically (1-990)/chronologically (1904-1910)
Notes: lacking no. 87-93, 99, 159-160, 115-122, 181, 217, 230, 243, 265, 352, 355, 379-380, 402, 408, 433, 447, 477, 507, 512-513, 523-524, 544, 549, 556, 576-578, 588-589, 594-595, 603, 620, 625, 640, 682, 726, 751, 753, 759-760, 896, 899, 928, 971, 974
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Scope and Content: The Joint Committee on Banks and Banking, a standing committee of the General Court, considers all matters concerning banks, banking institutions, credit unions, small loans, consumer credit, and other matters referred.  It drafts, reviews, and holds hearings on proposed legislation.  Consumer credit recodification files relate to efforts to formulate and pass a consumer credit recodification law governing consumer credit, licensing, and small loan regulations.
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Scope and Content: Middlesex County was incorporated on May 10, 1643 (Mass Recs 2:38), continuing under successive governments of Massachusetts, most recently the Commonwealth (1780), as outlined in MGLA c 34.  Administrative powers and duties previously exercised at various times under the laws of the Commonwealth by the county courts of general sessions of the peace, county courts of common pleas, and circuit courts of common pleas, were assigned to commissioners in Middlesex and other counties, per St 1827, c 77 (1828).  The government of Middlesex County in this and other respects was abolished as of the effective date of St 1997, c 48 (approved July 11, 1997)
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: The Cambridge Bridge Commission was established in 1898 to administer construction of a bridge spanning the Charles River between Boston and Cambridge, to be known as the Cambridge (later Longfellow) Bridge.  Series was created to document bridge contracting by summarizing existing commission records.
Arrangement: Arranged by bridge part
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Scope and Content: The Charles River Basin Commission was established in 1903 to make examinations and plans for and to carry out the construction of a dam across the Charles River between and Cambridge and other construction and dredging related to the building of the dam.  To carry out these tasks, the commission contracted for construction, supplies, and equipment.
Arrangement: Arranged by contract number
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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 correctional institutions and businesses in Massachusetts to determine whether convict labor interfered with manufacturing interests (St 1894, c 238, s 2), as recorded in this series.
Arrangement: In two subseries: (1) Prison returns (2) Manufacturer returns
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Scope and Content: The Division of Legal Medicine was established in 1956 to provide psychiatric services to courts and correctional institutions and to ensure that persons who came into contact with the criminal justice system received needed mental health care.  To fulfill this responsibility the division held clinics for incarcerated adults and children in correction and juvenile facilities as well as a clinic for paroled children and adults.  Connvict treatment case files were created to provide a record of the treatment and psychiatric evaluation of these persons.
Arrangement: Arranged by case no
Restrictions: Criminal offender record information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 6, ss 167-178. Mental health client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 123, s 36. Mental retardation client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 123B, s 17. Youth services client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 120, s 21. For conditions of access consult repository
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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.
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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: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Contents: 1851-1891 1 volume  1891-1914 1 volume  1892-1944, 1944-1951, 1952-1960, 1961-1962 (typescript in file folders)
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