In 1999, the MCC's Folk Arts and Heritage Program succeeded the Folklife and Ethnic Arts Program, 1987-1992. Since then it has documented, presented, and supported cultural expression based on shared ethnicity, religious belief, occupational tradition, or sense of place. It identifies and documents craftspeople, performers, and cultural specialists; and seeks to help sustain the practice of tradition where they live and to increase appreciation of their artistry within the community and beyond. The program has established an ongoing regimen of documentary fieldwork, provided direct support to individual artists through Artist Fellowships and Traditional Arts Apprenticeships, and created visibility for traditional artists through print media, radio broadcasts, and bookings at regional folk festivals. The collection generated by the Folk Arts and Heritage Program comprises unique primary source materials (primarily audio recordings, visual documentation, and interviews) documenting the traditional culture, beliefs, occupational skills, and expressive traditions of cultural communities from all across Massachusetts. Series consists of materials generated by folklore field research conducted by the MCC staff folklorist, interns, and contracted professional folklorists and photographers. Field research focuses on the traditional and vernacular music, dance, crafts, and material culture of the people of Massachusetts, from long-settled to new immigrant communities. The collection is in four segments, each organized by folklorist or intern: (1) files of individual folklorists, largely paper documents--field notes and transcripts of recorded interviews, but interspersed with visual and audio materials (boxes 1-11) also digital surrogates and digital records (2) color slides and black and white photographic negatives (boxes 12-17) and digital surrogates (3) audiocassette and DAT tape recordings (boxes 18-29) and digital surrogates (4) Artists Fellowships and Traditional Arts Apprenticeships files, paper documents (boxes 30-31) and digital records. Related series: Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities--Massachusetts folklife interview files, 1987-1988 (AF10/870X); Massachusetts folklife audiocassettes, 1987-1988 (AF10/871X).

Deaths 1919 Boston Volumes 7, 8, and 26

For the compilation of a more accurate state map, each town in Massachusetts (and the city of Boston) was required by Resolves 1829, c 50 to make a town plan based on a survey no more than five years old, to be submitted to the state secretary's office. Plans, to be drawn on a scale of one hundred rods to the inch, were to include the following information: rivers, waterways, public and private roads, places of public worship, courthouses, other public buildings, distance from town center to county shire town and to Boston, bridges and ferries, falls, ponds, shores, harbors, islands, mountains and hills, mills and manufactories, mines, iron works, meadows, and woodlands. Printed maps compiled from these town plans and from state astronomical and trigonometrical surveys commissioned by Resolves 1829, c 58 (see history and records of Survey of Massachusetts (CO31)), may be found in: Maps and plans ((M-Ar)50), no. 2243, 2249, 2250, 2253, 2254, 2265, 2433.

For the compilation of a state map, each town in Massachusetts (including those in the five eastern counties now part of Maine) was required by Resolves 1794, May Sess, c 101 (June 26, 1794) to make a town plan based on a survey no more than seven years old, to be submitted to the state secretary's office. The Massachusetts map is included in: Maps and plans ((M-Ar)50), no. 1616, 1617, 1617A and the map of Maine in no. 1618, 1618A. Three sets of these maps were sent to each of the states pursuant to Resolves 1794, c 77.

The adjutant general of the Commonwealth, as executive administrator of the state's Military Establishment, came to be responsible for preserving information about past military episodes and service relating to Massachusetts. This series comprises an index to Massachusetts residents killed in the service of the United States during World War II. Information includes name, rank, residence, and branch of service, and may include race, date of death of each soldier, next of kin, the circumstances of death (e.g., killed in action, died of wounds, died in hospital), and the war theater in which it occurred. An accompanying printed booklet with title: World War II honor list of dead and missing--State of Massachusetts contains corresponding data, although the information in the booklet is arranged by county, and is confined to the name, serial number, rank, and circumstances of the death of each soldier.