The Derris Slide Collection is solely composed of approximately 4400 slides from the 1940's thru the 1960's of the Great Smoky Mountains region of Tennessee. Mr. William Derris was an amateur photographer and owner of the Derris Motel (later the Laughing Horse Inn) in Townsend, Tennessee, which he photographed at length and used the slides of those photographs in a slide show for the entertainment of his Inn's numerous and varied guests.

This collection is comprised of eleven archival slide boxes containing twenty slide trays each, resulting in approximately 4400 slides divided into eighty-five series. The organizational methods and standards of the collection's originator have been fully preserved throughout the processing period as well as within this finding aid. The collection is organized alphabetically within eleven archival boxes containing twenty slide trays; each with approximately twenty to twenty-five slides per tray. Each of the eighty-four series is denoted by a slide tray divider, which bears the name of the series that proceeds it. Each series was identified by the collection's originator and has been maintained within the eighty-five series titles. Approximately ninety percent of the individual slides were previously marked with indicators and specific information regarding the content of the side by Derris.