Toby J. McIntosh Papers
Scope and Contents
The Toby J. McIntosh Papers comprise copies of documents from Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) files kept on Oberlin College student political activities in the 1960s and 1970s, and a small amount of related materials including an article on government surveillance at Oberlin written by Toby McIntosh for the March/April 1978 issue of the Oberlin Alumni Magazine.
The first folder contains a 1978 letter from an agent in the FBI to Toby McIntosh concerning his request for the release of nine documents under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, a copy of his article for the Oberlin Alumni Magazine on FBI surveillance at Oberlin, and miscellaneous, related materials. The other seven folders, representing the bulk of the collection, contain copies of redacted FBI documents and information collected by FBI personnel on Oberlin College students and faculty, and correspondence between intelligence officials dating from 1960 to 1975. They are arranged chronologically.
McIntosh’s copies of FBI documents spanning the era of Civil Rights activism and the Vietnam War document strategies employed by the United States government to compile information on Oberlin student leaders and the college administration’s response to student protest. His papers provide rich sources that highlight Oberlin student leadership in supporting Civil Rights and opposing the Vietnam War.
Dates
- Creation: 1960-1981, undated
- Creation: Majority of material found in 1960-1975
- Other: Date acquired: 11/19/1981
Creator
Conditions Governing Access
Unrestricted; permission to copy must be obtained from the Archivist.
Biographical Sketch
Toby James McIntosh was born in 1949 to Robert Patrick (1920-2017) and Joan Aileen Wright McIntosh (1924-) in Madison, Wisconsin. He attended Oberlin College from 1967 to 1971, earning the B.A. degree in Government.
While attending Oberlin College, McIntosh participated in student politics and journalism. He was involved with journalism on campus as Chairman of the Editorial Board and Executive Director of the Oberlin Review, and held office as a member of the General Faculty Assembly. After graduation, he worked at the Manchester American before accepting a position as a reporter for the Lawrence Daily Journal-World. He joined the Bureau of National Affairs as a reporter for and editor of Antitrust/Consumer Affairs, and subsequently worked as a reporter for and editor of Bloomberg BNA’s Daily Report for Executives. While at BNA, he received a fellowship from the Reuter Foundation Programme for study at Oxford University and a National Endowment of the Humanities Journalism fellowship at the University of Michigan. He later founded the Global Transparency Initiative, a coalition advocating transparency at international financial institutions.
Toby McIntosh currently lives in Arlington, Virginia. He married Kathleen Susanne Johnston and has two children. He is currently the editor of FreedomInfo.org, a nonprofit website about international transparency. He is semi-retired.
Sources Consulted
Oberlin Alumni Today (Oberlin, OH: Oberlin College, 2010)
Oberlin College Archives
Toby McIntosh Papers (RG 30/149)
Alumni Records (RG 28)
Open Government Partnership profile for Toby McIntosh here. Accessed April 20, 2017.
Note written by Kira Zimmerman.
Extent
0.40 Linear Feet
Language of Materials
English
Method of Acquisition
The collection was received from Toby J. McIntosh on November 19, 1981.
Accruals and Additions
Accession No: 1981/028
- Title
- Toby J. McIntosh Papers Finding Guide
- Author
- Kira Zimmerman (OC 2019), Anne Cuyler Salsich
- Date
- 04/24/2017
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Revision Statements
- 2017 April 24: Processed by Kira Zimmerman (OC 2019) and Anne Cuyler Salsich
Repository Details
Part of the Oberlin College Archives Repository
420 Mudd Center
148 West College Street
Oberlin OH 44074-1532 US
440-775-8014
440-775-8016 (Fax)
archive@oberlin.edu