Collections : [Connecticut State Library, State Archives]

The Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) promotes and administers comprehensive, recovery-oriented services in the areas of mental health treatment and substance abuse prevention and treatment throughout Connecticut.

The Motor Vehicle Department was established by legislative act in 1917 to protect life and property by the administration of motor vehicle laws, to regulate, discipline, and educate motor vehicle operators, and to provide revenue through licensing for the construction and maintenance of state highways.

The Department of Public Health is the State's lead agency in public health policy and advocacy.

Materials in the collection include architectural plans and specifications for for State Captiol maintenance and repair projects, photographs of various Public Works projects, groundbreaking and dedication programs, and files documenting the Home Ownership Program.

The Department of Social Services provides a broad range of services to the elderly, persons with disabilities, families, and individuals who need assistance in maintaining or achieving their full potential for self-direction, self-reliance and independent living.

The Department of Transportation was created in 1969 per P.A. 768, sec. 3, with the merger for four agencies: State Highway Department, Department of Aeronautics, Connecticut Transportation Authority, and the Commissioners of Steamship Terminals.

The Department of Veterans' Affairs assists the State's veterans in obtaining benefits or privileges entitled to them under state and federal law. This record group includes records of the Fitch's Home for Soldiers and the Veterans Home and Hospital in Rocky Hill.

This record group consists primarily records of the Mansfield Training School that are described in a separate finding aid. Also included here are Commissioner's legal records from the lawsuit CARC v. Thorne, that resulted in the closing of Mansfield Training School, and a small quantity from the Community Services Division and Mystic Oral School Task Force.

Dorence Atwater served in the first squadron of Connecticut Cavalry (Harris Light Cavalry) which was attached to the 2nd New York Cavalry. Dorence was captured by the Confederates near Hagerstown, Maryland, in July 1863 and was incarcerated at Andersonville Prison in Georgia. He was selected to maintain the death register for Union soldiers. As a precaution, he made a copy for himself and turned it over to the United States government upon his release. He later would request a copy of it repeatedly but was denied. Dorence with the aid of Clara Barton procured permission to erect wooden markers for the dead at Andersonville using the death register which he then took home. Atwater for taking the register home was convicted in a court martial and sentenced to hard labor, from which he was eventually pardoned. In 1868 he was named consul to the Seychelles Island and later to Tahiti where he married Princess Moetia Simon in 1875. Richard Atwater, Dorence's brother, assembled the collection to document the career of and to right the miscarriage of justice experienced by his brother. A former officer in Dorence's unit, Edward W. Whitaker, assisted Richard in gathering information and artifacts. The bulk of the collection consists of letters between Richard and individuals including Edward Whitaker, Clara Barton, Moetia Atwater, Jason Fenn, George Godard, and others.

Rev. Duane N. Griffin (1853-1927) was a Hartford area Methodist minister. These papers consist of a manuscript genealogy of the descendents of John Griffin of Simsbury, Conn. and genealogy notes on the Griffin Family.