Boston (town and city) records
Many of the Boston town and city records have been digitized by the Boston Public Library. The groups of records refer to changes in the historical trajectory of the town/city government. You will want to access:
- Board of Aldermen. The Board of Alderman minutes have been digitized, 1822-1867. After 1868 the Board of Aldermen is replaced by the City Council.
- Boston Town Records, 1634-1822 and Selectmen’s Records (digitized by BPL)
Digitized records may be found in the Boston Record Commissioners reports. These include early town records (Selectmen’s minutes and Boston Town Records from 1634-1822) and Selectmen’s Records, 1701-1822.
- City Council. The City Council is the legislative body of the City of Boston from 1868-present. The digitized records go from 1868-2015. Until 1947, the record of the proceedings included the text of the debates.
Additional Boston Town Records
The Boston Public Library continues to work on digitizing the Town Records. The Colonial and Revolutionary Boston Collection of Distinction includes 1200 more town records that have been digitized. Use a broad variety of search terms as records relevant to Faneuil Hall may be present even if they do not come up via that search term. Undigitized town records are held in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department at the Boston Public Library.
- Boston City Reports. 1822 to 1960s with gaps prior to 1840. At Boston City Archives. See BPL guide to Boston (City) Departmental Reports for digitized reports.
- Boston City Documents. The City of Boston also produced documents beyond annual reports. All such reports were bound into a collection we refer to as Boston City Documents. This series ran from 1834 to 1970, but not all are digitized yet. Volumes before 1923 can be accessed through HathiTrust. An index to the documents published between 1834 and 1909 can be found here.
- Docket Files. The Boston City Archives holds the docket files, the paperwork for city council minutes. There are docket files for 1822-present, but they are most navigable to 1900. Use the city council minutes to identify a particular topic under discussion, note the date(s), and then use this information to narrow in to search the dockets for the related paperwork. These include petitions to use Faneuil Hall. They are organized by year and topic within year. Spreadsheet available in Google Drive as informal tool to some of the docket files. You can request to see specific docket files at the Boston City Archives.
National Parks of Boston also holds the records of the Historian’s Office, which may yield more information about the Great Hall and the artwork. In addition, the Park’s object collections pertaining to Faneuil Hall include historic postcards, newspapers, pamphlets, and historic prints and engravings of the building as well as some ephemera, such as admission tickets. Materials date from 1768 to the early 20th century.
