This collection is a subgroup (Division) of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality records, RS 494. The State Board of Health was the predecessor agency to the Department of Health and Environmental Sciences and later the Department of Environmental Quality and the Department of Public Health and Human Services. Please see the primary finding aid for more Montana Department of Environmental Quality records.

This collection consists of three series: General Correspondence, Laboratory Records, and Subject Files. The General Correspondence (1914-1965) concerns the Cut Bank water system, various water treatment methods, mottling of tooth enamel, swimming pools, bacterium tularence, wells at Three Forks, and the Mutual Aid Program. The Laboratory Records consist of water lab reports for various Montana cities and towns (1942-1958). Included in the Subject Files are papers of the Montana Section of the American Water Works Association (1925-1949); analysis of the use of poly-phosphate in Hardin (1941-1942); chemical logs for Miles City (1932-1933); histories of the Billings and Great Falls waterworks; a lecture by W. M. Cobleigh on "Private Water Supplies: Their Selection, Protection, and Purification" (1920); the ordinance establishing the waterworks department in Kalispell (1914); a questionnaire on artificial ice plants (1926); and a sanitation evaluation of the Missoula City-County Health Department (1952). Selected printed materials were transferred to the Library. Photographs transferred to the Photo Archives include views of waterworks plants in Billings and Great Falls, Montana.