In the Preface to his biography of George D. Woods, Robert W. Oliver writes, Bernadette Schmitt, Woods' secretary, who served him from his days in the army until his death and who helped Louise Woods until Louise's death four years later, allowed me to go through many boxes of Woods's letters, articles, and speeches. In the end, she sent them to me at Caltech, where I perused them at leisure. In 1982, after George Woods' death, Louise Woods donated his papers to Butler Library at Columbia University, andthe papers were delivered in increments between 1983 and 1987, except for those that Oliver was using.

Oliver had 13 boxes of papers. In 1993, when the biography was completed and with the agreement of Columbia University, Oliver shipped the Woods papers in his possession to the World Bank. The Bank staff selected roughly half of these papers for copying, and then shipped the entire corpus of original papers to Butler Library at Columbia University. The Archives also had a few copies from the Woods papers that had been deposited at the Columbia University Library prior to the deposit of the papers that Oliver had in his possession; these copies were added to the Bank's copies of the papers Oliver had used and can be identified by the Columbia University Library stamp on the copies.