File:Seal of Holyoke, Massachusetts.svg

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Description

English: The seal of the City of Holyoke, a symbol representing the collective municipal government, featuring two mills alongside the Holyoke Dam, and Mount Tom prominently in the background behind a grove of trees by Log Pond.

Date

circa 1876

Source Holyoke City Directory, 1885; including South Hadley Falls, Holyoke:W. S. Loomis and Company, 1885

Author Rendered by Simtropolitan; original by Edwin A. Ramsay, city clerk from 1874-1876

Permission
(Reusing this file)

This image shows a flag, a coat of arms, a seal or some other official insignia. The use of such symbols is restricted in many countries. These restrictions are independent of the copyright status.

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was a Commonwealth of Massachusetts public record disseminated by a Commonwealth agency or the Massachusetts Archives. Massachusetts' Secretary of the Commonwealth has stated that such works can be copied and used for any purpose. This copyright does not extend to those records created, received, or under the custody of municipalities by M. G. L. c. 66, § 7, unless otherwise stated, nor does this apply to copy-written materials for commercial purposes received by employees of the Commonwealth.

Language describing permissions

A Guide to the Massachusetts Public Records Law, Published by William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Division of Public Records, (Updated January 2017) can be found at https://www.mass.gov/files/2017-06/Public%20Records%20Law.pdf and page 7 says:

"With the exception of situations in which a records custodian is withholding records pursuant to Exemption (n), inquiries into a requester's status or motivation for seeking information are expressly prohibited. ^[1] Consequently, all requests for public records, even if made for a commercial purpose or to assist the requester in a lawsuit against the holder of the records, must be honored in accordance with the Public Records Law."

↑ See G. L. c. 66, § 10(a) (public records are to be provided to “any person”); see also 950 CMR 32.05(5) (custodian prohibited from inquiring into a requester’s status or motivation); but see G. L. c. 4, § 7(26)(n) (a records custodian may ask the requester to voluntarily provide additional information in order to reach a “reasonable judgment” regarding disclosure of responsive records).

Definition of "public record"

Public records are defined in A Guide to the Massachusetts Public Records Law, Published by William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Division of Public Records, (Updated January 2017) at https://www.mass.gov/files/2017-06/Public%20Records%20Law.pdf on page 40, under M. G. L. c. 4, § 7(26) as:

all books, papers, maps, photographs, recorded tapes, financial statements, statistical tabulations, or other documentary materials or data, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received by any officer or employee of any agency, executive office, department, board, commission, bureau, division or authority of the commonwealth, or of any political subdivision thereof, or of any authority established by the general court to serve a public purpose, or any person, corporation, association, partnership or other legal entity which receives or expends public funds for the payment or administration of pensions for any current or former employees of the commonwealth or any political subdivision as defined in section 1 of chapter 32, unless such materials or data fall within the following exemptions found on page 40

Limitations of template usage

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This template is based on official statements by the Secretary of the Commonwealth, which are not definitive in the way a statute or a court ruling is. This formal statement only speaks to public records held by the Massachusetts Archives, so the use of this template for public records of the Commonwealth sourced from individuals or groups not affiliated therewith is not encouraged.

This is consistent with the statement at http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ARC/arcres/residx.htm:

"Those records created by Massachusetts government agencies and institutions held by the Massachusetts Archives are not copyrighted and are available for public use. Copyright for materials submitted to state agencies may be held by the person or organization that created the document."

Note: Works that are considered "public records" but were not created by a state or municipal government agency may be copyrighted by their author; the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution prevents state law from overriding the author's right to copyright protection that is granted by federal law. For example, a state agency may post images online of the final appearance of a building under construction; while the images may be "public records", their creator (eg. architecture/construction firm) retains copyright rights to the image unless the contract with the agency says otherwise. See: Government-in-the-Sunshine Manual: To what extent does federal law preempt state law regarding public inspection of records?.
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	The copyright situation of this work is theoretically uncertain, because in the country of origin copyright lasts 70 years after the death of the author, and the date of the author's death is unknown. However, the date of creation of the work was over 120 years ago, and it is thus a reasonable assumption that the copyright has expired (see here for the community discussion). Do not use this template if the date of death of the author is known. You must also include a United States public domain tag to indicate why this work is in the public domain in the United States. Note that a few countries have copyright terms longer than 70 years: Mexico has 100 years, Jamaica has 95 years, Colombia has 80 years, and Guatemala and Samoa have 75 years. This image may not be in the public domain in these countries, which moreover do not implement the rule of the shorter term. Honduras has a general copyright term of 75 years, but it does implement the rule of the shorter term. Copyright may extend on works created by French who died for France in World War II (more information), Russians who served in the Eastern Front of World War II (known as the Great Patriotic War in Russia) and posthumously rehabilitated victims of Soviet repressions (more information).
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File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

	Date/Time	Dimensions	User	Comment
current	19:06, 25 July 2018	581 × 579 (831 KB)	Simtropolitan	Removed further print artifacts
	05:40, 27 December 2017	581 × 579 (831 KB)	Simtropolitan	Further noise removed
	05:20, 27 December 2017	581 × 579 (830 KB)	Simtropolitan	Further minor adjustments
	05:11, 27 December 2017	581 × 579 (829 KB)	Simtropolitan	Removed printing artifacts on original
	06:45, 20 December 2017	581 × 579 (680 KB)	Simtropolitan	Fixed centered text within circular borders
	06:36, 20 December 2017	581 × 579 (686 KB)	Simtropolitan	Centered, last one for a while
	06:35, 20 December 2017	581 × 575 (686 KB)	Simtropolitan	Circles trued
	06:19, 20 December 2017	581 × 575 (677 KB)	Simtropolitan	Re-rendered text
	04:48, 20 December 2017	620 × 615 (845 KB)	Simtropolitan	Cleaned linework further
	18:40, 26 November 2014	620 × 615 (629 KB)	Simtropolitan	Fixed width of "E" in "Holyoke"