"[4] The Archives operates the Commonwealth Museum to educate and display some of its collections of important documents about state and national history.

The sub-theme, “Tracing our Roots,” tells the story of four representative Massachusetts families of Native American, English, African-American and Irish heritage.

On a motion made by Lemuel Shattuck, Esq., a committee of that body was appointed to petition the Legislature for this object; which resulted in the course of the ensuing session in the passage of a Resolution to that effect, and appropriating means to defray the expense.

The papers were in what seemed inextricable confusion; a vast amount of documents, in the utmost disorder, suffered to accumulate through two centuiies before men's eyes were opened to discern their importance.

A careful examination of every sentence, and a discriminating minute scrutiny of their import and bearings, were necessary to arrange them where they belonged; and a comprehensive system of classification had to be organized.

Before its completion, he was sent to England, commissioned by the State Government for the purpose, to look for duplicates of Colonial and Provincial Records and other public papers, of which the originals had been lost.

The papers were divided into appropriate departments; properly classified, according to subjects and dates, carefully and skillfully attached to blank leaves; durably and handsomely bound; titled, with distinct letters and figures; and conspicuously numbered.

The shelves of the State Department, present the grand result, in two hundred and forty-one large and thick volumes.

But after the state’s oldest document — the 1629 Charter of Massachusetts Bay — was stolen in 1984, the decision was made to build a new archives near the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum at Columbia Point in Dorchester.