The 158th Massachusetts General Court, consisting of the Massachusetts Senate and the Massachusetts House of Representatives, met in 1953 and 1954 during the governorship of Christian Herter. Richard I. Furbush served as president of the Senate and Charles Gibbons served as speaker of the House.

Christian Archibald Herter was an American diplomat and Republican politician who was the 59th Governor of Massachusetts from 1953 to 1957 and United States Secretary of State from 1959 to 1961. He served as president of the board of trustees at the Dexter School from 1937 to 1939. His moderate tone of negotiations was confronted by the intensity of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in a series of unpleasant episodes that turned the Cold War even colder in 1960–61.