This work presents the characterization of trans-4-hydroxy-l-proline (abbreviated as THLP) by quantum chemical calculations and spectral techniques. The spectroscopic properties were investigated by FT-IR, FT-Raman and 1H and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques. The FT-IR (4000–400cm−1) and FT-Raman (3500–10cm−1) spectra in the solid phase were recorded for THLP. The 1H and 13C NMR spectra were recorded in DMSO solution. The energies of THLP are obtained for all the eight conformers form density functional theory (DFT) with 6-311++G(d,p) basis set calculations. From the computational results, C1 conformer is identified as the most stable conformer of THLP. The theoretical wavenumbers were scaled and compared with experimental FT-IR and FT-Raman spectra. The complete assignments were performed on the basis of the experimental results and potential energy distribution (PED) of the vibrational modes, calculated with scaled quantum mechanical (SQM) method in terms of fundamental modes. The values of the total dipole moment (μ) and the first order hyperpolarizability (β) of the investigated compound were computed using B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) calculations. The calculated HOMO–LUMO energies reveal charges transfer occurs within the molecule. The isotropic chemical shift computed by 1H and 13C NMR chemical shifts of the THLF, calculated using the gauge invariant atomic orbital (GIAO) method also shows good agreement with experimental observations.