The North Baker Research Library at the California Historical Society has extensive holdings on Jonestown and Peoples Temple that include manuscripts, records, correspondence, membership files, and photographs.
We are open to the public by appointment only, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11 am to 5 pm. However, if you are visiting San Francisco from out of town, we often can accommodate you on other days. You may e-mail us at reference@calhist.org, or call us at 415-357-1848 ext 20, for an appointment.
The library at the California Historical Society supports both scholarly research and family-related research in the collection. A generous donation makes it possible for individuals, students, family members and other researchers to use the Peoples Temple-related collections free of charge.
While we do not have the resources to conduct extensive research projects ourselves, we may be able to help you focus on the material you may be seeking, and/or to direct you to researchers in the area familiar with our holdings. We can also help relatives who are searching for photos of family members who died in Jonestown.
There is a finding aid, available on request, to the main collection of the Peoples Temple Records, numbering over 100 boxes. Other related collections include the Moore Family Papers — which Denice Stephenson is processing to provide additional detail on its contents (see related story, this page) — and the papers for the lawsuit People v. Briggs from the Office of the Public Defender in San Francisco.
Please visit our website for further information on CHS at www.californiahistoricalsociety.org.
(Tanya Hollis is the Associate Librarian at the California Historical Society, 678 Mission Street, San Francisco 94105, 415/357-1848, ext. 20. Email at: reference@calhist.org.)