The collection includes copies of the oral interviews Oliver conducted in preparing his biography and copies of a portion of the Woods papers that he had at his disposal when writing the biography. It also contains the clippings files that George Woods maintained during his failed attempt to become the head of the Agency for International Development in 1961 and his successful appointment as head of the World Bank in 1962. Original photographs of George and Louise Woods and copies of photographs from various sources, including the World Bank, are included. The copy photographs were made for reproduction in Oliver's biography of George Woods, and many are annotated by Oliver. A small quantity of memorabilia and published materials relating to both George D. and Louise Woods is included.

In the Preface to his biography of George D. Woods, Oliver writes, I relied most heavily on the interviews in writing the life of Woods. The interviews he conducted, all titled by Oliver Conversations about George Woods and the World Bank, illuminate the events and personalities during Woods' tenure as President.

Spanning Woods' life both before and after he was President of the World Bank, this material provides insight into his principal interests, as seen by his biographer. Particularly well represented in the copies are memoranda and correspondence on India. A number of items concern Woods' part in the IBRD negotiations of the Suez Canal dispute in 1958, prior to his tenure at the Bank. Internal Bank documents include notes on the Economic Development Institute and the economic work of the Bank, correspondence relating to the IDA replenishment deadlock of 1965-1966, and documents regarding the nomination of a new president. Later documents include his 1974 statement to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on IDA replenishment and correspondence with notable figures such as Barbara Ward.

The topic file consist of: Aid (E. Martin, DAC), Brookings Institution SDR [Special Drawing Rights], Study Group, Columbia University, John Foster Dulles Oral History Project, First Boston Corporation, Foreign - Miscellaneous (India - Egypt), Foreign Economic Assistance Task Force, India, IBRD, Miscellaneous personal messages, Notre Dame University, New York Times, Suez Canal, UN, and White House, Trip to Europe, Yugoslavia and Egypt.

The background material in this series includes such varied items as a photograph of the Woods on their honeymoon; Louise Woods' card as a volunteer nurses aide in the U.S. Citizens Defense Corps of the City of New York, 1949; Louise Woods' voter registration card for the City of New York 1957; a copy of Life magazine of June 12, 1958, with George Woods on the cover; formal photographic portraits of George D. and Louise Woods, alone and together; copies of photographs from various sources, most with annotations by Oliver; copies of the Columbia University Oral History Research Offices interviews with Louise Woods and Edward Townsend; and two books, As I Went Along, by Alan Pope, President of First Boston Corporation, given to associates at Christmas 1947 and 75 Years of Banking, distributed by the Mellon National Bank in 1944. The bulk of the series is the George D. Woods clippings files, both from his unsuccessful nomination in September 1961 to head the Agency for International Development and his October1962 appointment to the World Bank.