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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.

Diane Di Prima, best known for her work as a Beat poet and writer, was born 6 August 1934 in Brooklyn, New York. She attended Swarthmore College (1951-1953). Di Prima has received National Endowment for the Arts grants in 1966 for Poets Press and in 1973. She writes nonfiction, autobiographies, journals, essays, poetry and plays.

Dick Gackenbach was born 9 February 1927, in Allentown, PA, the son of William and Gertrude (Reichenbach) Gackenbach. He attended Jameson Franklin School of Art, NY, and Abbott School of Art, Washington, DC. He worked for J. C. Penney Company (New York City, 1950-1972) as a paste-up artist and later, creative director. He went out on his own as a free-lance author and illustrator beginning in 1972 to the present. Mr. Gackenbach died in 2001.