This collection contains research materials gathered by Victoria Garcia, David Radcliff, and Ronald Traylor for a paper titled "Houston's Department of Public Works and Engineering: A History Since 1933," as part of the requirements for the University of Houston's graduate course, History 6382: Research in Public History.

Materials include annual department reports; departmental histories, including the Wastewater and Water divisions; overviews of Houston's city government; reports by the United States Army Corps of Engineers concerning the Wallisville Lake Project; ephemera from the American Public Works Association, including a historical publication from the Association's Texas chapter; and audio recordings of oral history interviews with past Public Works and Engineering department officials and former Houston mayors Louie Welch and Kathy Whitmire.