Josiah B. Woods Family Papers

"Josiah Woods was an early supporter and sponsor of the College. He was responsible for raising the necessary funds to build the Woods Cabinet. He served on that building committee and on the Barrett Gymnasium building committee. He was a generous donor [to] the adornment of recitation rooms and helped meet special needs of the President and the professor. From 1850-1856 he was a member of the Board of Overseers of the Charity Fund. He was born in Enfield, Mass., Nov. 18 1796, and died there May 15, 1872. Although he was prepared for college, he went instead into the manufacturing business in Enfield. He was the inventor of a machine for manufacturing cards...."

--Excerpted from the Minutes of the Amherst College Board of Trustees, note 659E.

In "Reminiscences of Amherst College," President Edward Hitchcock remembered Josiah Woods in a discussion of his (Hitchcock's) desire to build a new cabinet (a room for a specific purpose such as housing a scientific collection) for the College:

"I was stimulated also by the offer of Professor C.U. Shepard to deposit his collections here if a good buiding were provided. I went to Boston to make a preliminary effort, but without much success. On my return, however, I met Hon. Josiah B. Woods, of Enfield, who expressed a conviction that he could obtain the means for such an object, and I persuaded him to attempt it. He did succeed so well that the Trustees at commencement in August, 1846, voted to erect 'a fire proof building for a cabinet of Natural History and an Astronomical Observatory.' This was done in 1847, at an expense of $9,000, constituting the present Woods Cabinet and Lawrence Observatory, to which two other buildings have since been attached. It was completed and nearly filled with specimens, so as to be publicly dedicated June 28th, 1848."

--"Reminiscences of Amherst College" (1863), page 60.