The " Public History Movement" has spread across the United States at the end of the twentieth century. For more than twenty years, the Center for Public History at the University of Houston has been a leader in the field in the city of Houston, the state of Texas, and the United States.

What is Public History? Simply put, it is the use of historical skills and methods outside of academic walls. Public historians use their training to meet the needs of the community - the public - whether that community is defined as a city, a neighborhood, a business, a historical society, or a museum audience. Public history is history intended for the public benefit.

Public historians pursue a wide array of tasks: researching and writing community, government, and corporate histories; curating museum exhibits; establishing and operating archives and records management systems; conducting site interpretation and historic preservation projects; editing historical manuscripts; conducting oral interviews; preparing genealogies; participating in policy analysis and planning; assisting in litigation; and so much more.

The Center for Public History calls the UH Department of History home. Our graduate program routinely includes approximately 20 majors and minors annually. Graduates of the program are employed in a variety of venues, including the Smithsonian, the Bush Presidential Library, Historical Research Associates, the Boston History and Innovation Collaborative, the UH Hilton Archives, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, and at academic institutions such as California State University, Sacramento. By 2006, grants, contracts, and internships to CPH, excluding corporate histories, have exceeded $1,000,000.

• The Center for Public History
• Tenneco Lecture Series
• Graduate Program in Public History
• Internships
• Admissions and Applications
• Faculty and Staff in Public History