The materials in the Lars Schmidt Papers document the career of theatrical producer, director, and publisher Lars Schmidt (1917-2009) and his wife, actress Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982). The collection spans the period 1910 to 2010, with the bulk of the materials dating between 1941 and 1971. A large portion of these are in Swedish and French, especially the business papers and scrapbooks. There are also significant evidential gaps in the collection. Although Schmidt was active in Paris as the owner of Théâtre Montparnasse, there is minimal documentation of this activity. There is also little substantive material regarding the actual production and/or direction of his plays, an exception being My Fair Lady .

Schmidt operated several business enterprises over the course of his career, beginning with Lars Schmidt & Company. The Business Papers series contains information about some of these entities, with coverage of AB Teaterbåten's operation of the theater boat in Gothenburg being the most extensive. Among the other corporate entities are Lars Schmidt Teaterförlaget, AB Lars Schmidt, Nordiska Teaterförlaget AB, and Prodartisticas SA. A clear business "genealogy" does not exist; there may be overlaps between the English and Swedish company names, particularly Lars Schmidt & Company, Lars Schmidt Teaterförlaget, and AB Lars Schmidt.

The Gothenburg Teaterbåten served as a venue for Swedish musical revues. Collection materials document both the mechanical operation of the show boat and the entertainment presented. Schmidt communicated with many well-known performers of the day, including actors Anna-Lisa Baude, Lasse Dahlquist, Dix Dennie (Gosta Stenberg), and Thor Modéen; writers Kar de Mumma (Erik Harald Zetterstrom) and Karl-Ewart Christenson; and directors Sven Paddock and Nils Perne. Also included is correspondence with agents and individuals regarding their acts, and related promotional literature, contracts, and programs. Interspered are Lars Schmidt & Company agendas, meeting notes, production announcements, skits and outlines, and other material pertaining to the Teaterbåten.

There are two subseries in the Theatrical Materials series: project files and scrapbooks. The project files concern individual plays, either produced or directed by Schmidt, or those that he may have been considering for production. Materials present for each title vary widely but may include clippings, scrapbooks, programs, scripts, photographs, financial records, correspondence, and ephemera. Titles documented only by a program or a script are identified as such in the container list. Also included in this series are several scripts for Bergman television and stage productions, some of which bear her annotations. The many productions of My Fair Lady , the first "Schmidt" musical to incorporate the original costume designs and choreography, are well-represented. Of particular interest are photostats of the Cecil Beaton costume sketches accompanied by fabric swatches. There are also examples of signage used in the Italian productions. Danish musical revue Teenager Love , West Side Story , and Jesus Christ Superstar are also comprehensively documented through clippings and scrapbooks. Other notable productions in the collection include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof , Diary of Anne Frank , Janus , Kiss Me, Kate , Oklahoma! , Oliver , and South Pacific .

The scrapbooks document theatrical productions in the United States, England, France, Scandinavia, and, occasionally, Germany from 1941-1970. As a complete list of the titles to which Schmidt held European or Scandinavian publishing and production rights is not available, it is not clear whether the scrapbooks were created to document these productions or to simply document the theater world of this era. Regardless of the intent, the clippings provide not only reviews of productions throughout the U.S., England, northern Europe, and Scandinavia (including Schmidt-licensed titles) but also coverage of the critical milieu and state of the theater business, especially in France, during this period.

The Correspondence series contains both personal and business correspondence. The majority of the letters are incoming with few responses from Schmidt. Exceptions to this include his exchanges with Oscar Hammerstein II and members of the Sandrews firm. Materials cluster in two chronological periods: 1942-1952 and 1960-1990s. Significant correspondents in the early period are Dorothy and Oscar Hammerstein II, Danish theater publisher Folmer Hansen, Norwegian theater director Knut Hergel, Swedish actress Karin Kavli, and Swedish playwright Vilhelm Moberg. In the later period, there is business correspondence with Jérôme Hullot, Arne Naess, and the Sandrews firm, as well as personal correspondence with Liana Ferri, Joan Littlewood, Pauline and Philippe de Rothschild, and Ann Todd. Other notable actors and playwrights represented include Alan Ayckbourn, Christopher Fry, Lillian Hellman, Henry de Montherlant, Sean O'Casey, Cole Porter, and Peter Ustinov, although there is limited correspondence with each. Family correspondence includes letters from Schmidt’s parents Daga and Reinhold, his brother Per Reinhold (known as "Putte"), and Bergman. There is also a large group of condolence letters sent upon Bergman’s death, many of which include Schmidt's responses.

The Biographical Materials series includes curriculum vitae, lists of plays produced and directed, several articles written by Schmidt, and preparatory notes, reviews, and an English rendering of his autobiography, Mitt Livs Teater . Of particular interest is a joint diary kept by Bergman and Schmidt in the year prior to their marriage. There are also several diaries kept by Schmidt (1949-1952, 1964), along with information about his appointments to the French Legion of Honor in 1980, 1997, and 2005. Materials concerning memorial events honoring Bergman are also present. The collection also contains a variety of Scrapbooks documenting Schmidt and Bergman's personal lives. The six personal scrapbooks (A-F) begin with Schmidt's journey to the United States in 1941 and end in the early 1970s. The first two volumes concern Schmidt's developing career and the remainder focus on his life with Bergman, and to a lesser degree, her career. There are also twelve scrapbooks created by fans documenting Bergman's career from the mid-1940s to 1960s and her marriages to Petter Aron Lindstrom, Roberto Rossellini, and Schmidt.

The Photographs series in the collection consists of images of Bergman, Schmidt, and their family (including Schmidt’s first wife, his two sons, and Bergman’s four children) and friends. Among these are photo shoots showing Schmidt and Bergman in the early years of their marriage and production stills from several Bergman films, such as A Walk in Spring Rain , Cactus Flower , and Saratoga Trunk . There are also portraits of Schmidt (including from his teens and early career) and Bergman and photographs of them with notable friends and colleagues, including Anita Louise, Arne Næss and Diana Ross, Anthony Quinn, and Tennessee Williams. The remaining series of Clippings and Printed Materials brings together loose items that are chiefly about the lives of Schmidt and Bergman. Included are several complete issues of European publications that contain feature articles about Bergman (1946-1982).