Scope and Content: St 1919, c 350, ss 99-110 established the Massachusetts Dept. of Public Safety, including a Division of State Police, under the supervision and control of a commissioner. The state police performed the functions, throughout the Commonwealth, of the District Police Force, including the Detective Dept., and was at the command of the governor in suppressing riots and in preserving the peace (GL 1921, c 147, s 2). Per St 1991, c 412, the division formed part of the Dept. of State Police.
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Scope and Content: In connection with a robbery and murders committed Apr. 1920 in South Braintree, Massachusetts, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were indicted Sept. 1920 and prosecuted and convicted in 1921 in Norfolk Superior Court.  After reviews of the trial and conviction by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and by an advisory committee appointed by Gov. Alvan T. Fuller and denial of petitions by defense counsel in the U.S. Supreme Court, the sentence of execution originally imposed on Sacco and Vanzetti was carried out Aug. 23, 1927.
Restrictions: Boxes 1-2 (i.e. originals) are restricted. Access by permission of state archivist or curator of Massachusetts Archives only
Notes: Transferred to Archives from State Police Headquarters, Feb. 6, 1997. Photocopied from: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives and Records Preservation. Reference files/Dept. of Public Safety Commonwealth vs. Sacco and Vanzetti. State Police files (v. 2). Location of originals unknown. Transferred to Archives from Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives and Records Preservation, Mar. 4, 1997.  Photocopies retained in its: Superior Court Dept. Norfolk and Plymouth Counties Commonwealth v. Sacco and Vanzetti. Reference files (folder 12)
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Scope and Content: St 1692-3, c 25 (Nov. 3, 1692) provided that all controversies concerning marriage and divorce in the the Province of the Massachusetts Bay be heard and determined by the governor and council, which replaced in this function the colonial Court of Assistants.  In 1780, Const Pt 2, C 3, Art 5 continued this arrangement until it should be superseded by specific legislation, which occurred with St 1785, c 69 (Mar. 16, 1786), under which the Supreme Judicial Court assumed jurisdiction for cases of divorce and alimony.  Series consists of files from cases heard by the Council not included in other record series (see below).
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: As part of their function to oversee, protect, and develop the waterways of Massachusetts, the Division of Waterways and Public Lands of the Dept. of Public Works and its predecessors in this function (the Board of Harbor Commissioners, to 1879, the Board of Harbor and Land Commissioners, 1879-1916, the Directors of the Port of Boston, 1911-1916, and the Commission on Waterways and Public Lands, 1916-1919), issued licenses for changes or improvements to waterways, including harbors and tidewaters.  Docket books contain abstracts of decisions made at hearings to grant licenses and serve as an index by case number to: Massachusetts. Division of Waterways. Minute books, 1879-1974 ((M-Ar)633)
Arrangement: Arranged numerically by docket, thereunder by petitioner, and then chronologically by date of hearing
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Scope and Content: The State Board of Conciliation and Arbitration was established in 1886; until 1902 it was known as the State Board of Arbitration and Conciliation or the State Board of Arbitration.  It was succeeded in 1919 by the Board of Conciliation and Arbitration, part of the Dept. of Labor and Industries.
Arrangement: Arranged by company name, thereunder chronologically
Notes: Dockets for 1905-1907 missing
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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: In two segments: (1) Boxes A1-30–1829-1905; arranged chronologically (2) Boxes B1-71, 1906-1997;  arranged by docket number
Notes: Files also contain unnumbered items through 1908 which from 1909 are classified as: Orders ((M-Ar)2154X)
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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.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by term, thereunder by subject
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Scope and Content: Commissioners appointed by the governor in 1837 to reduce Massachusetts common law relating to crimes and punishments to a systematic code prooduced this ms. draft criminal code in 1840.
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Scope and Content: As part of a survey of the Commonwealth commissioned by the governor in 1830 in order to prepare an accurate map of Massachusetts, geographic locations of base points were determined by calculations made from trigonometrical and astronomical measurements in the field.  Series consists of original drawings of compensating base apparatus designed by Simeon Borden in 1832 for the trigonometrical survey, of which he was in charge from 1834.
Notes: Memorandum by C.O.B. on item F57a (with accompanying transcript signed: L.H.B., Dec. 2, 1903) states that drawings were given to him by Borden, and that a full set with description was presented by Borden to the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia in 1843; in 1844 they were in possession of Prof. A.D. Bache, superintendent of the U.S. Coastal Survey, Washington. Set probably incomplete
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Scope and Content: St 1869, c 420, which established the State Board of Health and Vital Statistics (commonly known as the State Board of Health), gave the department responsibility for the public water supplies of Massachusetts under the designation of sanitary investigations.  Successive public health agencies continued this responsibility, eventually known as the Drinking Water Program, by 1914 under the State Board of Health, and by 1919, under the Dept. of Public Health, through the Division of Sanitary Engineering and the Division of Water and Sewage Laboratories, and ultimately, 1969-1975, through the Division of Environmental Health. Effective July 1975 (per St 1974, c 806), the division was transferred to the new Dept. of Environmental Quality Engineering (later Dept. of Environmental Protection) under the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs.
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