This collection contains materials assembled by Leland B. Tate, a professor of sociology at Virginia Tech. The majority of the collection consists of newspaper clippings relating to industrial and economic development in the New River Valley during the early 1940s, with an emphasis on the construction and operation of the Radford Army Ammunition Plant. The collection also contains two brief studies compiled by Tate: "Facts about the Blacksburg Community" (1946) and "Some Facts About Virginia's People" (ca. 1955) (co-authored with George Blume). The latter study relies on census data to analyze trends in gender, age, race, urbanization, and occupation.