Recent State Archives Acquisitions: November 2011
Background Information
A particularly significant and essential set of state government records was transferred this month to the State Archives. At the request of the Minnesota Secretary of State, Mark Ritchie, the original Session Laws of the Legislature were transferred this month. Collections Management Department staff assisted State Archives staff with boxing and moving the records, with the transfer of nearly 200 boxes completed in one day. The Session Laws are all of the acts of the Minnesota Legislature as passed in each year’s legislative session. Laws of a permanent nature are subsequently incorporated in the Minnesota Statutes which are coded laws. The Laws of Minnesota also include uncoded laws, including appropriations, proposed constitutional amendments, local laws, and effective date sections. From 1858 to 1907 the Session Laws are handwritten; after 1907 and to the present the Session Laws are typewritten. Original signatures of Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President of the Senate, the Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives, the Secretary of the Senate, the Governor, and the Secretary of State are present on each Session Law. A podcast is in production featuring Secretary Ritchie talking about the unique value of the records, why the Session Laws are being transferred to the State Archives, and views of packing and moving the records to the History Center.
Also transferred were two sets of records will be valuable for family history research, both patient index cards. One set of patient index cards (dated ca. 1950s-ca. 2008) is for the Ah-Gwah-Ching Nursing Home in Walker, Minnesota. Information on the patient index cards includes patient name, date of birth, address, county, provisional discharge location, religion, gender, race, emergency notification names, admission and discharge dates. The facility was originally the Ah-Gwah-Ching state tuberculosis sanatorium (established in 1907), converted to the state nursing home in 1962, and closed in 2008. The State Archives preserves selected records of both the tuberculosis sanatorium and the nursing home.
Interstate compact patient cards were received from the state Human Services Department and are dated ca. 1955-1990. The interstate compact is an agreement between 46 states to transfer mentally ill persons from one state’s mental health facility to another state’s mental health facility; the transfer program is voluntary. One set is for Minnesota residents housed in an out of state mental health facility, and another set for non-Minnesota residents housed in a Minnesota mental health facility. Information on the cards includes patient name, county, birth date, date admitted, hospital, resident state, transfer comments.
Acquisitions
1. Secretary of State. Session laws, dated 1858-2010. 184 boxes, ca. 60 loose volumes.
2. Ah-Gwah-Ching Nursing Home. Patient index cards, dated ca. 1950s-ca. 2008). 1 box.
3. Human Services Department. Interstate compact patient index cards, dated ca. 1955-1990. 2 boxes.
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December 2 , 2011
