Scope and Content Note
The papers of Arthur H. Woods (1870-1942) span the years 1884-1938, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1914-1923. The collection focuses primarily on Woods’s work as police commissioner for New York City, his military service, and his activities regarding unemployment and vocational rehabilitation for servicemen immediately after World War I. The papers contain a diary, correspondence, reports, notes, scrapbooks, clippings, and photographs organized by type of material and thereunder alphabetically or chronologically.
The diary is a record of Woods’s adolescence in Boston, Massachusetts, with descriptions of school activities, athletic events, friends, and family. Notable among the documents pertaining to his work as police commissioner are reports with comments by hoteliers, saloon keepers, and pimps regarding Woods and police activities. Correspondence and reports on criminal activities are also contained in the files. Reports and field notes on airplane production and maintenance, pilot training, and military preparedness represent Woods’s service in the Division of Military Aeronautics with the American Expeditionary Forces in France and Great Britain during World War I. Other reports and correspondence in the collection pertain to Woods’s work as assistant to the secretary of war coordinating vocational rehabilitation for returning servicemen and his service with the President’s Conference on Unemployment in 1921-1922. Scrapbooks of clippings relate principally to his activities with the New York City police. They also document his work with John D. Rockefeller (1874-1960) during the 1920s and 1930s, including Rockefeller’s support of the restoration of historic Williamsburg, Virginia.