At CHS
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The Archive
CHS is the chief repository of documents, publications, and photographs related to  Peoples Temple and events surrounding the 1978 tragedy in Jonestown. In 1983, the court appointed receiver of the Temple estate placed the official records at CHS; since then, former members, relatives, and scholars have donated their related materials to the Peoples Temple Collection. The collection includes more than 170 boxes of letters, documents, photographs, and audiotapes. There are papers dating back to the 1950s, government records from the FBI, CIA, and other agencies, and personal papers of former members and their families.
Beginning in 2003, ongoing work in the collection, which contains more than 10,000 photographs, has included efforts by former members to identify many of the images. Researchers in these archives discover not only a challenging amount of material, but also a wide array of perspectives on the events surrounding the Jonestown tragedy. CHS continues to welcome new materials to the collection and will eventually hold the research materials generated by Leigh Fondakowski and her collaborators in the process of creating the play.
The Book
To coincide with the world
premiere, CHS Press in
collaboration with Berkeley’s
Heyday Books has  published
Dear People: Remembering
Jonestown based on selections
of letters, oral histories, and
photographs from the Peoples
Temple Collection. Edited by
the collection’s archivist Denice
Stephenson, who also served as
the play’s researcher/archivist. Dear People is available at CHS and at the
Berkeley Repertory Theatre giftshop.
The Exhibit
From April 16th through June 4th, the Library at CHS welcomes the public to a display of Peoples
Temple photographs and artifacts and offers extended hours for research in the Peoples Temple Collection
on Saturday afternoons from 12:00 - 4:30. Sponsored by the Walter and Elise Haas Fund.
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