This collection houses correspondence, class materials, manuscripts, newspaper clippings, and photographs documenting Paul L. Soper's career at Western State College and at the University of Tennessee. The correspondence includes both personal and professional letters and houses several communications between Soper and Presidents Andy Holt and C. E. Brehm concerning the theatre program. The class materials are composed of class and lecture notes from Soper's classes and student record books dating from 1946 through 1986. Among Soper's writings are offprints of journal articles, a copy of Soper's thesis, and copies of his two plays, It Happened to Nice People and Once Upon A Town. Most of the newspaper clippings deal with the University of Tennessee theatre program (including the opening of the Clarence Brown Theater, where Soper was accompanied by actress Jane Wyman). The photographs show Soper's time at Western State College and at UT.