Part of: Joint Committee on environment, Natural Resources, and Agriculture
Legislative/hearing files, 1981-2008.
107 record center cartons
Call no.: CO70/1549
Scope and Content: The Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources, and Agriculture (until 2005: Joint Committee on Natural Resources and Agriculture), a standing committee of the Massachusetts General Court, considers all matters pertaining to natural resources and the environment: air, water, and noise pollution and control thereof; hunting and fishing; conservation; solid and hazardous waste disposal; sewerage; agricultural and farm problems; and other matters referred. It drafts, reviews, and holds hearings on proposed legislation. Legislative/hearing files are compiled to document legislation considered by the committee and hearings thereon, including preparation, hearing proper, and subsequent actions. –Files may contain House and Senate draft and final bills and draft amendments, with accompanying bill analysis; hearing schedules; petitions, statements, and correspondence supporting or opposing proposed legislation; testimony; and background materials including reports, memorandums, and copies of laws and legal files.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by year/session, thereunder by chamber/bill, numerically or chronologically by hearing date
Notes: 1981 files incomplete; 2000 files lacking
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Part of: Joint Committee on Health Care
Legislative/hearing files, 1985-1992.
16 record center cartons
Call no.: CO79/2080
Scope and Content: The Joint Committee on Health Care, a standing committee of the General Court, considers all matters concerning health care programs and regulation of health care systems, including rate settings, licensing of health facilities and personnel, certificates of need, and health care programs including Medicaid; and other matters referred. It drafts, reviews, and holds hearings on proposed legislation. Legislative/hearing files are compiled to document legislation considered by the committee and hearings thereon, including preparation, hearing proper, and subsequent actions. –include those of the Special Legislative Commission on Lead Poisoning Prevention, established by St 1985, c 140, s 57.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by year, thereunder by chamber/bill number
Notes: 1985-1987 files reduced; 1986 files include passed legislation only; 1989 files largely lacking
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Part of: Joint Committee on Local Affairs
Legislative/hearing files, 1983-2002.
43 record center cartons
Call no.: CO67/1809
Scope and Content: The Joint Committee on Local Affairs, a standing committee of the General Court, considers all matters seeking enactment of special laws for a certain city or town; establishment of economic, district, and local planning commissions; rent control; zoning laws and rules; and other matters referred. It drafts, reviews, and holds hearings on proposed legislation. Legislative/hearing files are compiled to document legislation considered by the committee and hearings thereon, including preparation, hearing proper, and subsequent actions.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by year, thereunder by chamber/bill number
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Part of: Executive Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation
Lemon Law subject files, 1983-1987 (Bulk: 1983-1985).
2 document boxes
Call no.: CA6/1973
Scope and Content: The Executive Office of Consumer Affairs was established in 1969 as of 1971, and renamed Executive Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation in 1983.
Arrangement: Arranged by subject
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Part of: Walter E. Fernald State School
Lesson plans, 1908-1953.
10 volumes (partial record center carton)
Call no.: HS14.02/797X
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
Restrictions: Mental retardation client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 123B, s 17. For conditions of access consult repository
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: Mental retardation client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 123B, s 17. For conditions of access consult repository
Part of: Walter E. Fernald State School
Letters of appreciation, 1925-1940.
1 volume (partial record center carton)
Call no.: HS14.02/2642X
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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: Mental retardation client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 123B, s 17. For conditions of access consult repository
Part of: Massachusetts State Primary School (Monson, Mass.).
Letters of placement recommendation, 1854-1871.
1 record center carton
Call no.: HS3.05/923X
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–St 1866, c 209, s 7; then by school trustees–St 1880, c 208, s 1) and periodically monitored by the visiting agent of the Board of State Charities (St 1869, c 453, s 2; St 1870, c 359, s 2–in which called State Visiting Agency) and from 1879 by the Division of Visiting, Dept. of Indoor Poor, State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity (State Board of Lunacy and Charity from 1886). These offices (and the almshouse inspectors before them) also visited and approved homes before placement, requiring recommendations on behalf of applicants for placed inmates (St 1869, c 453, s 3; St 1870, c 359, s 4). Series was created to administer this process.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Part of: Governor
Letters official, 1861-1925.
422 volumes; Index: Partial card file cabinet
Call no.: GO1/568X
Scope and Content: The governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as chief executive of the state, is responsible for administration of the executive departments and agencies; approval or rejection of all legislative enactments; preparation of the state budget; appointment of state officials; and coordination of affairs among federal government, state, and cities and towns. Letters official consist of letterpress copies of outgoing correspondence of the governor, chiefly from terms of John Andrew (1861-1866), relating to the administration of state government.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by year
Notes: Transferred to Adjutant General’s Office at unknown date. Transferred by the office’s war records unit to State Library in 1960s and to Archives in 1981. Volumes numbered 1-417, with some irregularities. Files for 1871-1874 lacking
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Part of: Massachusetts Metropolitan District Commission Sewerage Division
Licenses and permits for work in navigable waters of the United States, 1892-1960.
45 file folders (partial record center carton)
Call no.: EN4.01/2128X
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).
Notes: Transferred to Archives from Metropolitan District Commission. Permit No. 42 is missing. Some licenses by the Board of Harbor and Land Commissioners and by the Dept. of Public Works, Division of Waterways are missing
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Part of: Middlesex County (Mass.). County Commissioners
Licenses issued, 1868-1869.
1 volume in partial record center carton
Call no.: CY1.09/2159X
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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