Scope and Content: The governor creates subject files to provide background information on various issues relating to the administration of state government.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by term. –thereunder alphabetically by subject
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Scope and Content: Responsibility for operating a system of waterworks for the Metropolitan Water District (Boston and surrounding communities) was transferred from the Metropolitan Water Board to the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board by St 1901, c 168 and then to the Metropolitan District Commission by St 1919, c 350, ss 213-219, specifically to its Water Division. These agencies were successively responsible for providing an adequate supply of pure water; controlling ponds and other watershed property; and constructing, operating, and maintaining reservoirs, aqueducts, and other waterworks. Subject files were created to assist directors in the administration of the Water Division and its predecessors.
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by subject
Notes: Subject files were part of an administrative file that was selectively retained by the Archives. See also series (M-Ar)569X, (M-Ar)570X, and (M-Ar)894X
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Scope and Content: The Governor’s Legal Office advises the governor on all matters of legal concern. Duties include drafting and reviewing legislation, drafting executive orders, and reviewing extraditions and pardons. Subject files were created during the day-to-day operations of the office.
Arrangement: In four subseries
Restrictions: Evaluative/personal information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 4, s 7, d 26(c) and c 66A. For conditions of access consult repository
Notes: MSD 2/506-507 deaccessioned from Archives, Apr. 1992. Some material transferred to: Correspondence files ((M-Ar) 1679)
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Scope and Content: The office of sheriff originated in Massachusetts as part of the English system of law enforcement introduced during the period of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay (1691). St 1699-1700, c 9 made sheriffs responsible for the common jails of their counties. St 1784, c 41 further regulated the jails or prisons and required the sheriff to maintain a calendar or register of prisoners. The act also directed the separate housing of debtors separately from those charged with crime, presumably leading to the practice, at least in Suffolk County, of keeping separate calendars for the two groups until 1943. –St 1799, c 81 established a municipal court to handle Suffolk County criminals, taking over from the Court of General Sessions. Any prisoners ordered committed or awaiting trial were to be committed to the custody of the keeper of the Suffolk County Jail, i.e., the town or so-called Boston gaol, located since 1635 off Court Street. This jail was succeeded by the Leverett Street Jail (opened 1822), the Charles Street Jail (opened 1851), and the Suffolk County Jail on Nashua Street (opened 1990). –Series lists those in the criminal category. Information in both sets of registers varies in detail over time, but includes name, residence, birthplace (from 1864) and description, i.e., height, age, complexion (criminals only), occupation (for debtors, to ca. 1856 only), date jailed, cause (for debtors, plaintiff and sum), committing authority, date and circumstances of discharge (sent to house of correction, state prison, etc.).
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Vols. 12-47, 47A, 48-97 (1852-1942) numbered 2-88; others unnumbered. Calendars for June 1823-Feb. 1827; pages for Jan.-Feb. 1842; calendars for Aug. 1848-Sept. 1849, Dec. 1850-Dec. 1851, Jan.-Aug. 1942, Nov. 1976-Feb. 1979, Apr. 1980-Jan. 1981, Dec. 1983-Oct. 1984, Oct. 1985-Jan. 1988 lacking. Holdings terminate Oct. 1988. Listings for 1840-1841 for federal witnesses and prisoners only. Calendars for 1799-June 1814 bound with: Debtors calendar ((M-Ar)408X), 1799-1812
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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
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Scope and Content: The Board of Railroad Commissioners was established in 1869. The board assumed additional functions of the Highway Commission and became the Public Service Commission in 1913.
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Scope and Content: Cushing Hospital in Framingham, Mass., intended for the care and custody of elderly persons, was purchased by the Commonwealth from the federal government in 1955, opened in 1957 under the Dept. of Mental Health, transferred to the Dept. of Public Health in 1984, and closed in 1991.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Restrictions: Mental health client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 123, s 36. For conditions of access consult repository
Notes: Transferred to Archives by Tewksbury Hospital, Tewksbury, Mass., Mar. 1999
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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 alphabetically by subject
Notes: Scheduled as: Administrative subject files
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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.
Restrictions: Mental retardation client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 123B, s 17. For conditions of access consult repository
Notes: Scheduled as: Correspondence. Outgoing correspondence for 1894-1895 scheduled as: Outgoing correspondence
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