4-20 Day, 20 April 2003

The Thomas G.M. Simchak Photographs document his interest and participation in environmental, political, social, and outdoor activities, on campus and elsewhere. The collection consists of: Series 1. Photographic Prints from Thomas G.M. Simchak (approximately 931 prints); Series 2. Born-Digital Images on Compact Disks (2), containing 1,608 born-digital photographs, many of which are represented in the prints; and, Series 3. Reference Prints from Selected Born-Digital Images on CD-Roms (796 prints), printed by a vendor for the Archives.

Thomas Simchak (Oberlin College Class of 2003) photographed these images during his student days at Oberlin, 1999-2003, for his private use or for the Oberlin Review. The photographs depict events in Oberlin (i.e., the Big Parade, Commencement, Outing Club Trips, OhioPIRG events, Oberlin College campus buildings and views), and off-campus events (i.e., IMF/World Bank Protest, 2000; a protest against the Iraq War in Cleveland, 2003; and the Anti-War March in Washington, D.C., also 2003). Many of the sleeves holding the groupings of photographs by subject or event are inscribed with descriptions by Simchak himself.

The prints from Simchak were commercially printed in glossy finish, and vary in size from standard 4” x 6” prints to panoramas in varying sizes up to 12” wide. The original digital image files are jpegs in much larger dimensions (i.e., 100 x 12 inches), and generally 72-75 pixels per inch.

The digital images on the compact disks were downloaded to the Achives digital archive. The compact disks may be used to view the images on a reading room computer only. Reference prints were made by a vendor from 796 born-digital images on the CDs in 2019. The majority of these provide additional images in print form for reference. These images were printed in 4” x 6” format with matte finish. They are housed in a separate box from the original Simchak collection.

Please consult with the College Archivist concerning the reproduction rights associated with these photographs.