The Legislative Department of the United Steelworkers of America was created in 1943, providing the steelworkers' union with its own means of influencing federal legislation. This collection documents efforts of the United Steelworkers of America to monitor and inform the United States Congress with regard to legislation pertaining to steel and related industries. The topical scope of the Legislative Department records is vast, touching upon labor law, trade and economic policy, monetary policy, energy policy, education and job training, social welfare policy, civil rights, housing, child care, environmental concerns, and occupational safety and health.

The collection contains extensive general office correspondence with USWA districts, international departments and offices, the AFL-CIO, and outside organizations in which the presidents participated. There are also files on USWA elections, negotiations, and conventions, and research files of clippings from newspapers and magazines. The documents emphasize organizational responsibilities of union officers and district directors, USWA election procedures and strategies, convention proceedings, and collective bargaining structures, including the role of industry conferences and negotiating committees. The series of records related to its correspondence with various USW districts are particularly helpful for air and water pollution research.

In 1963, the Center for Air Environment Studies was founded as a unit of the Institute for Science and Engineering, which organized in 1962 and also administered the newly created Materials Research Laboratory. The Center's primary enterprise was the research of air pollution, biometeorology, industrial hygiene, and life support systems.The Center for Air Environment Studies records consist of the Center's annual reports (1968-1979), two indexes (1967, 1968), one guide to air pollution research (1972), and 17 volumes of research publications sponsored by the Center (1969-1985), which are available in bound volumes: https://catalog.libraries.psu.edu/catalog/80481.

The Institute for Research on Land and Water Resources was founded in 1963 as an intercollege research program in natural resource use and conservation disposal. It merged with the Center for Air Environment Studies in 1986 to form the Environmental Resources Research Institute, before later being renamed the Institutes of Energy and the Environment. The Institute for Research on Land and Water Resources records document its research endeavors, including volumes and booklets of technical reports on land use and waste water spanning from the 1960s-1990s, plans and public information packets on natural resource concerns, and materials pertaining to each of the five divisions activities. This collection also contains research reports of the Center for Air Environment Studies from the 1970s-1980s.

Dr. Albert L. Myerson (1919-2004) was a physical chemist who received his bachelor's degree from Penn State in 1941. He worked on the Manhattan Project (to develop the first atomic bomb) for the U.S. government, intercontinental ballistic missile research for General Electric, and air pollution research for Exxon. This collection includes technical reports, articles, presentations, correspondence, notes, and photographs documenting Dr. Albert L. Myerson's career in physical chemistry research at The Pennsylvania State University.

The materials in this collection chiefly relate to the Centralia mine fire and the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Surface Mining assessment drilling and diagnostic monitoring project in the early 1980s. The Centralia mine fire began in the Buck Mountain coalbed near the Centralia Borough, Columbia County, Pennsylvania in May 1962. The collection includes field notes, maps, reports, and correspondence. Much of this material is official documents created by the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Surface Mining and its contractors. This collection is valuable towards documenting the U.S. government's investigation into the mine fire between 1980-1983, understanding the fire's environmental impact, and understanding the fire's impact on Centralia's former residents.