Elected Sessions and Legislative Sessions in Massachusetts

When did Massachusetts make the switch from one-year elected sessions to two-year elected sessions? And what about legislative sessions? This was a reference question we received recently and I found it interesting. It took some digging into our resources to find the answer (which as a librarian, I love doing), and afterwards, the Reference department thought it was something that may help other researchers.

The short answer is that the 142nd General Court (1921-1922) was the start of the two-year elected session in Massachusetts, meaning that Legislators were (and still are) elected to two-year terms. Looking at the Manuals for the General Court in our digital repository and in print, you’ll notice that they were published annually until 1920, but starting in 1921, they were published biannually.

Now let’s dig into the history of the General Court and the length of legislative sessions to add some context to this. To start, a legislative session is the period of time in which legislators meet to create laws. Here in Massachusetts, we have an annual legislative session, meaning that the General Court convenes once a year. This changed for a brief period of time though. In 1938, Massachusetts shifted its legislative sessions to a biennial system, in which the General Court met every other year instead of annually. This change began in 1939, with no session held in 1940 and only special sessions in 1942 and 1944 to address urgent matters.

The intent behind biennial legislative sessions was to stay in line with the biennial elected sessions that the Commonwealth has, while also reducing unnecessary legislation and saving costs. This system, however, was short-lived. In 1945, following a referendum, the state ended the brief experiment of holding biennial legislative sessions and returned to holding annual sessions. A previous blog post written by one of our librarians in 2016 talks more about the 6 years when Massachusetts had a biennial legislative session.

That blog post also references Leading the Way by Cornelius Dalton, a go-to source for us here at the State Library. This book covers the history of the Massachusetts General Court from 1629 to 1980. Being a library that focuses heavily on Massachusetts history and legislative materials, this book is an invaluable resource for our librarians. It was one of the first books I was shown when I started working at the State Library and we currently have a few copies floating around for staff to use (and for patrons to use as well!)

Pages 453-457 of Leading the Way covers the length of legislative sessions for the General Court (as opposed to the length of elected sessions for members of the General Court). The table that spans these 5 pages shows the length of each session of the Legislature since 1832. You’ll want to read the footnotes too. They include information about when extra sessions took place and why, and other information related to the General Court for specific years. For example, did you know the first year there was a 160-member House of Representatives in Massachusetts was in 1979? This is the number of Representatives the Commonwealth still has today.

Footnotes 4 and 5 on page 457 point to the first year of the biennial legislative session (1939) and the return to annual legislative sessions (1945), as we learned about above. If you’d like to take a closer look, you can use one of our copies in our reading room or you can access this book via Internet Archive. Just sign up for a free account and you’ll find the book here.

If you’re curious about the legislative process in Massachusetts, the Mass Bar Association put together this helpful webpage. It includes a short overview of the Massachusetts General Court, information about filing a bill, and the three-reading process.

 If you’d like a more interactive learning experience, the Citizens’ Legislative Seminar, organized by the Senate Office of Education and Civic Engagement, is hosted twice a year at the State House. The goal is to educate the public on the functions of the Massachusetts Legislature through a series of speakers and a simulated legislative hearing and Senate Session. Those who are interested must be sponsored by their senator in order to participate. More information about this program can be found at this link.

If you have more questions related to this or another topic, the Reference librarians here at the State Library are always here to help! Don’t hesitate to visit room 341 of the State House or reach out to us at Reference.Department@mass.gov.

Jessica Shrey
Legal Research Reference Librarian

A Turkey in the Library!

If you live in Massachusetts, then you know that it isn't uncommon to see wild turkeys roaming around, and not just in rural areas, but in suburban neighborhoods, too! In fact, we even had a wild turkey on the grounds of the State House a few years ago. Though that turkey no longer visits us, we are displaying Audubon's Wild Turkey (plate 1) in our reading room this month, so once again, there's a turkey in the State House. The print depicts an adult male turkey, traipsing alone through the wilderness. A few years ago, we displayed the Wild Turkey - Female and Young (plate 6), which you can see here.

Wild turkeys were plentiful in the region in the 1600s, and it was part of the diet of the Wampanoag tribe and thus also the English settlers at Plymouth. If it was a component of the harvest meal we think of as the first Thanksgiving, then it may have been just one dish complemented by other fowl like geese or duck. On the Plimoth Patuxet website, we find a recipe for turkey sobaheg; sobaheg means "stew" in Wampanoag. You can read more about food of the Wampanoag in a past blog post. 

Due to a combination of over-hunting by a growing human population, and a decrease in the turkey's natural habitat, the wild turkey population dwindled and it was nearly extinct before an re-population effort in the 1970s. More information about the wild turkey is available on the Mass Audubon website. 

Be sure to visit us from November 5 through December 4 to see the wild turkey on display in our reading room. 

Elizabeth Roscio

Preservation Librarian

State Library Newsletter - November Issue

Happy November! From special events on November 6 and 13, to materials displayed for Thanksgiving and National Native American Heritage Month, to new library resources, you can catch up on everything happening at the State Library in this month's newsletter, out now!

Pictured here is a preview, but the full issue can be accessed by clicking here. And you can also sign up for our mailing list to receive the newsletter straight to your inbox.

A Day of Public Thanksgiving and Praise

As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches later this month, we’re displaying an edition of the Old Colony Memorial and Plymouth County Advertiser in our Collection Spotlight case. Printed on October 26, 1822, this newspaper includes a proclamation for an upcoming Day of Thanksgiving that was issued by Governor John Brooks on October 18, 1822. The proclamation establishes Thursday, December 5 as a day of “Public Thanksgiving and Praise” throughout the Commonwealth.

The proclamation is printed on the far-left column of text

Our broadside collection includes a number of proclamations issued by Massachusetts Governors dating from 1779 to 1902, as well as a few more recent proclamations issued by Governor Baker. Broadsides are large single sheet publications, with writing printed only on the front. They were ephemeral in nature, with the purpose of spreading news or advertisements, and were commonly found in use through the 1800s. Thanksgiving Day proclamations would have been printed as broadsides and then sent to town government or religious officials to share with their constituents and parishioners. We’ve previously written about and displayed the 1783 Thanksgiving Day proclamation issued by John Hancock, but we’ve not previously shared a Thanksgiving Day proclamation that was printed in the newspaper. The publishing of the proclamation in local newspapers would have helped to ensure that word of the Day of Thanksgiving would spread throughout the Commonwealth. The version we’ve displayed is from the Old Colony Memorial, a newspaper which began publication the same year as this proclamation, in 1822, and continues today. And it is timely for the season that the newspaper we are sharing is one that was published in Plymouth County.

As stated in the proclamation, this state-issued Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer establishes that, “The people of every religious denomination are requested to assemble in their respective places of public worship on that day, unitedly to express to Almighty God a deep and grateful sense of the manifold favors and blessings, which He has been graciously pleased to vouchsafe to us.” Those who celebrate Thanksgiving today tend to focus on gathering and giving thanks over a large meal, while the purpose of Days of Thanksgiving and Prayer described in 19th-century proclamations like this one focused on parishioners joining together in religious services. Though there are differences in how we celebrate Thanksgiving today verses what is described here (notably, the proclamation ends with the line, "the people are requested to abstain from all labor and recreation incompatible with the religious services of the day" so those of you planning Thanksgiving football games would have been out of luck), the sentiment of expressing gratitude is the same today is it was in 1822, whether it happens in a religious sanctuary, your dining room, or elsewhere. 

The Old Colony Memorial version of the Thanksgiving Day proclamation will be on display in our reading room through December 3, so be sure to visit us to take a look. The proclamation comprises just a few columns of the displayed newspaper pages, so you’ll also get to see other news and advertisements from 1822. Our Special Collections holdings also includes the 1822 broadside version of this proclamation, which can be found here. On your computer or mobile device, it would be easier to read the full text of the proclamation in the broadside version rather than the newspaper version. And while you're there, you can explore the full collection of proclamations in our digital repository. If you'd like to see just the Thanksgiving proclamations, use the search feature (indicated with a magnifying glass) and type in “Thanksgiving” and “Proclamations.”

Elizabeth Roscio

Preservation Librarian

Author Talk with Matthew J. Louis: Veteran Career Transition Expert

Presented by the State Library of Massachusetts and Office of the Veteran Advocate

The State Library of Massachusetts Author Talks Series in collaboration with the Office of the Veteran Advocate is proud to announce Matthew J. Louis as our November speaker. Matt is a best-selling author, veteran, and leader in career transition for members of the military community.

Event Details:

• Matthew J. Louis author of Mission Transition and Hiring Veterans
• Wednesday, November 13, 2024. 12pm - 1:00pm
• In-person and Virtual event.
• State Library of Massachusetts - Room 341, Massachusetts State House Livestream: https://www.youtube.com/user/mastatelibrary

The event will be livestreamed on our YouTube channel courtesy of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Broadcast Services - tune in at noon!

Be sure to sign up for our Author Talks newsletter and follow our social media channels (Instagram, Facebook, and X) for the latest information on our visiting authors.

For more information on the Massachusetts Office of the Veteran Advocate, please visit their official website and follow them on LinkedIn, Facebook, and X.

About the books: Mission Transition (2019) and Hiring Veterans (2023) are not only best-selling, award-winning titles, but practical guides for veterans and employers. Mission Transition provides veterans with the resources to enter and excel in the civilian workforce with strategies for resumes, interviews, and advice from veterans. Hiring Veterans is the guide for employers; from recruiting to onboarding, Louis presents the tools needed to bring highly skilled and qualified veterans into organizations.

About the author: Matthew Louis is an author, consultant, veteran, and President of PurePost. From Matthew’s professional website: Matt serves as the veteran Transition Assistance officer for his West Point class, is a National Speaker for the US Chamber’s Hiring Our Heroes program, serves JPMorgan Chase’s external advisory council for military and veterans affairs, and advises the board of Soldiers To Sidelines. 

During active commissioned service in the US Army, Matt served in the Southwest Asia combat theater and in the 194th Separate Armored Brigade. During reserve commissioned service, Matt served on the staff of the Army’s Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and commanded multiple regions around the country for the US Military Academy’s Admissions Office. He is a retired Lieutenant Colonel from the US Army and serves on the Service Academy nominating committee for his local Congressman.

Matt holds an MBA in Operations and Finance from The Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from West Point, and is a graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College. He is also a certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and holds the ASCM organization’s Certified Supply Chain Professional designation.

If you are able to join us in person for this talk, attendees will be able to participate in a question-and-answer session with the author. Books will be available for purchase; $15.00; cash or credit accepted.

As always, this author talk is free and open to all. Assisted listening devices will be made available upon request. Any questions or concerns, please email us at AuthorTalks.StateLibrary@mass.gov.

For more information on the State Library Author talks series, please visit our site.

Author Talks Working Group