This collection comprises much of Bill Black’s career as a costume designer, from various theaters and productions across the USA, until his retirement from UTK professorship and design work for Ut's Clarence Brown Theatre in 2020. Costume design sketches, fabric swatches, magazine clippings, correspondence, photographs, reviews, and playbills make up the bulk of the collection. Other items include performance tickets, letters, printed emails, meeting notes, thank you notes, poster-sized costume designs for local Knoxville businesses, and a set of designs associated with several Presbyterian churches in Knoxville, TN. Also included are several binders of "shopping sketches", sets of smaller-scale copies of original designs.

Designs were produced between 1976 and 2020 for theatres, theatre companies, and festivals including the Utah Shakespeare Festival (formerly the Utah Shakespearean Festival) the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Pioneer Theatre Company, Round House Theatre, the now defunct Three Rivers Shakespeare Festival, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and several major universities.