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) 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: From 1790 to 1837, population censuses in Massachusetts were limited to those taken decennially by the federal government under constitutional provision.  Starting in 1837 the General Court authorized state decennial censuses to supplement the federal ones, for determining representation in the legislature and other purposes.  These state censuses have been conducted by authority of constitutional and statutory provisions under the auspices of the secretary of the Commonwealth.  The 1975 decennial census was taken in accordance with a constitutional amendment passed in 1974 to reduce the size of the House of Representatives from 240 to 160 members (Const Amend Art 101).  The census was to be used as a basis for determining representative, senatorial, and councillor districts and for distributing state and federal reimbursements to cities and towns (St 1975, c 10).  City and town decennial census files are returns made by city and town officials to the state secretary’s office, specifically to the state census director, head of the Census Division, for verification.
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by municipality
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Scope and Content: In 1837 the General Court authorized two censuses, in both cases stipulating the secretary’s involvement: a population census to be used for allocating federal funds to towns in the wake of the dissolution of the United States Bank (St 1837, c 85); and a decennial census of “ratable polls” to be used for apportioning membership in the House of Representatives (St 1837, c 128) as required by the state constitution (Const Amend Art 12), ratified that same year. (Prior to 1837, censuses in Massachusetts were generally limited to the U.S. decennial censuses that commenced in 1790.)  Each state census, with a few exceptions, was authorized by an enabling act that further defined its scope. Censuses were supervised by the state secretary, who was responsible for providing city and town officials with blank forms, for collecting returns, and for tabulating results. Enumeration itself was carried out by city and town officials.Const Amend Art 13 changed the basis of representation from ratable polls to inhabitants and provided for state decennial censuses beginning in 1840. St 1855, c 439 mandated a decennial census at mid-decade, beginning in 1855, which had the effect of providing for a state census every five years. St 1857, c 60, however, abolished the end-of-decade census, taken in 1840 and 1850, which had coincided with the federal one. The scope of the census was changed to include an enumeration of legal voters to serve as the basis for determining representation, along with the census of inhabitants (Const Amend Arts 21-22). Decennial censuses of legal voters were used for determining legislative apportionment until 1970, when Const Amend Art 92 once again established a decennial census of inhabitants as the basis for representation. –In 1874 responsibility for the decennial census was transferred to the Bureau of Statistics of Labor (St 1874, c 386), which was put in charge of the 1875 and later enumerations of population, as well as of the decennial census of industries, which had been required of the state secretary since 1865 (St 1865, c 146). (The agency was renamed the Bureau of Statistics in 1909.) Returns of census results, however, continued to be filed with the state secretary’s office.  St 1919, c 350, s 25 returned sole responsibility for the decennial census to the state secretary and authorized him to appoint a supervisor of the decennial census who would be responsible for collecting, compiling, and publishing census information. (Responsibility for industrial statistics was given to the successor to the Bureau of Statistics, the Division of Statistics in the new Dept. of Labor and Industries (St 1919, c 350, s 69)). St 1920, c 157 redesignated the supervisor as state census director. St 1924, c 453 gave the secretary the authority to verify census information returned by the cities and towns and to make inspections of records if necessary.  Under constitutional and statutory provisions in effect through 1990, the state decennial census of inhabitants was conducted for the purpose of determining representative, senatorial, and councillor districts and as a basis for distributing state funds to cities and towns (Const Amend Art 101, as amended by Amend Art 109). In 1986 the state secretary for the first time exercised his statutory power by challenging returns from the City of Boston in the 1985 decennial census. The governor established a Decennial Census Commission to investigate. Among other things, the commission’s report ((M-Ar)738X) questioned the need for a state decennial census and in 1987 and 1990 the General Court, meeting in successive constitutional conventions, voted to abolish the Census Division and its functions. This action was ratified by the electorate in Nov. 1990 (Const Amend Art 117)
Restrictions: Use of copies at following website strongly recommended if feasible: http://archives.lib.state.ma.us/handle/2452/122027
Notes: CONTENTS: Abstract of the census, 1855. Secy of the Commonwealth. Boston: W. White, 1857. — Census of legal voters, 1857. Secy of the Commonwealth. Boston: W. White, 1857.– Abstract of the census, 1865. Secy of the Commonwealth. Boston: W. White, 1867.  — Statistical information relating to certain branches of industry in Massachusetts, 1865.  Secy of the Commonwealth. Boston: Wright & Potter, 1866. — Census of Massachusetts, 1875. Bureau of Statistics of Labor. Boston: Wright & Potter, 1876-1877. 3v.  I: Population and social statistics. II: Manufactures and occupations. III: Agricultural products and property. — Compendium of the census of Massachusetts, 1875. Bureau of Statistics of Labor. Boston: Wright & Potter, 1877. — Census system of  Massachusetts for 1875. Bureau of Statistics of Labor. Boston: Wright & Potter, 1876. — Census of Massachusetts, 1885. Bureau of Statistics of Labor. Boston: Wright & Potter, 1887-1888. 3 v. in 4.  I. Pts. 1 & 2. Population and social statistics.  II. Manufactures, the fisheries, and commerce.  III. Agricultural products and property. — Census of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1895. Bureau of Statistics of Labor. Boston: Wright & Potter, 1896-1900.  7 v.  I-IV. Population and social statistics. V. Manufactures. VI. The fisheries, commerce, and agriculture. VII. Social statistics and general summaries. — Census of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1905.  Bureau of Statistics of Labor.  Wright & Potter, 1908-1910. 4 v.  I. Population and social statistics. II. Occupations and defective social and physical conditions. III. Manufactures and trade. IV. Agriculture, the fisheries, and commerce. — Decennial census, 1915. Bureau of Statistics. Boston: Wright & Potter, 1918. — Decennial census, 1925. Secy of the Commonwealth. [Boston] 1926. — Decennial census, 1935. Secy of the Commonwealth. [Boston] 1935. — Decennial census, 1945. Secy of the Commonwealth. [Boston] 1945. — Decennial census, 1955: population and legal voters of Massachusetts. Secy of the Commonwealth.  [Boston] 1956. — Decennial census, 1965: population and legal voters of Massachusetts. Secy of the Commonwealth. [Boston] 1966. — State Census, 1965: statistics on age distribution by sex in cities and towns of Massachusetts. Secy of the Commonwealth. [Boston] 1967. — .Massachusetts 1975 decennial census. Census Division. [Boston,1978?]  — Massachusetts 1985 decennial census. Census Division. [Boston,1986?] (Photocopied from copy at  Watertown (Mass.) Public Library–full text not available at website noted above)
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Scope and Content: From 1790 to 1837, population censuses in Massachusetts were limited to those taken decennially by the federal government under constitutional provision.  Starting in 1837 the General Court authorized state decennial censuses to supplement the federal ones, for determining representation in the legislature and other purposes.  These state censuses have been conducted by authority of constitutional and statutory provisions under the auspices of the secretary of the Commonwealth.  St 1971, c 820 provided for the taking of a special census of inhabitants of wards and precincts of cities and towns to be used as a basis for redividing representative, senatorial, and councillor districts in accordance with Const Amend Art 92, ratified 1970.  The census was taken by city and town officials and returns made to the state secretary, for whom the Census Division inspected results for errors and inconsistencies before submitting them to the General Court.  Returns consist of census lists recording number of inhabitants in wards and precincts, ward and precinct maps, certified statements about returns, receipts, and some correspondence relating to redivision of wards and precincts.
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by municipality
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Scope and Content: In 1983 the Dept. of Mental Health was sanctioned by the U.S. District Court for inadequately controlling reports of restraint and seclusion of patients institutionalized under the department’s jurisdiction. The Evaluation Section in its Division of Mental Health Services (called the Evaluation Section of the Division of Policy and Planning from 1987) was instructed to develop the forms, maintain the data, and publish the results of restraint and seclusion reports for public and private institutions (St 1984, c 464). A public report, omitting patient identifiers, was required. Both state mental health and mental retardation institutions were included in these reports until St 1986, c 599 removed the responsibility for mental retardation from the Dept. of Mental Health and established a new Dept. of Mental Retardation.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: From the records of the Governor’s Commission on Mental Retardation, transferred to  Archives, 1994-2008. For details consult the Massachusetts Archives series control file
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Scope and Content: Resolves 1802, c 123 provided that commissioners be designated by the governor to fix terms of awards from Henry Knox, principal proprietor, to settlers without title in Waldoborough, Waldo Patent, District of Maine.  This series contains legal documents evidencing completion of the process.
Arrangement: In two subseries: (1) Awards (2) Surveyor field notes
Notes: Title page: Submission of settlers – Waldo Claim, v. 3
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Arrangement: In four subseries: (1) References (2) Awards (3) Powers of attorney  (4) Surveyor field notes; Arranged within each volume by locality.
Notes: Resolves 1796, Jan 1797 Sess, c 60 provided that report of the commissioners be filed with the state secretary. Title page: Submission of settlers–Waldo Claim, v. 1-2
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Scope and Content: The Joint Committee on Human Services and Elderly Affairs, a standing committee of the General Court, considers all matters concerning public welfare, children, the elderly, the handicapped, mental health, drug rehabilitation and control, veterans benefits, alcoholism, the correction system (including administration, prisoners’ rights, furloughs, work release, probation, rehabilitation, and parole), other social service programs, and other matters referred.  It drafts, reviews, and holds hearings on proposed legislation.  Series is created by the committee chair to enable the committee to formulate human services budget proposals and to react to gubernatorial vetoes of portions thereof.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by fiscal year
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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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