Located in: Special Collections & University Archives

This collection documents the work of Morrough P. O’Brien (1902-1988), consultant and profession of hydraulic engineering, who is consider the founder of modern coastal engineering.

O’Brien was educated in the United States and Europe, and served as professor, of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, between 1938 and 1959. He was also active as a consultant for governmental agencies and private business, including the Beach Erosion Board, the Waterways Experiment Station, the Bureau of Ships, General Electric, and the Wayerhaeuser Company.

The O’Brien papers contain correspondence, reports, photographs, maps, and other documents, concerning sedimentation, the flow of water in channels, flood control, waves and surge, beach erosion, rivers, dams and related projects, pipes, hydraulic models, and pumps.