Most of the photos on this site have been donated by former Peoples Temple members or relatives of members who have granted permission to use them. Many others are in the public domain and were requested, and received, under the Freedom of Information Act. These photographs are free to use. Please credit the photographer, when possible, and the Jonestown Institute.
Example: Photo Courtesy Claire Janaro, through the Jonestown Institute
Example: Photo Courtesy Laura Kohl, through the Jonestown Institute
Example: Photo recovered by the FBI and released under the Freedom of Information Act, through the Jonestown Institute
Some photos belong to California Historical Society, and are generally listed as such. Permission to use these is required by the California Historical Society. For CHS permission, write to Debra Kaufman at the California Historical Society.
The Peoples Temple Collection at San Diego State University Special Collections
Hundreds of photos are available at San Diego State University Library’s Digital Collections. These include the Jones Family Memorabilia Collection, 1962–2002 and the Peoples Temple Collection, 1972–1990. These collections have a readily visible query box so that you can search within them for a particular image. The Jones Family Memorabilia Collection, 1962–2002 was donated by Stephan Jones, and contains personal photos and effects of Jim Jones, Marceline Jones, and other members of the Jones Family. The Peoples Temple Collection, 1972–1990 contains photographs taken by the John V Moore Family on visits to Jonestown in May 1978 and May 1979. Many photos in this collection are duplicates of photos in other collections. Some photographs are copyright-protected, so please contact the Head of Special Collections, Anna Culbertson for permission to reproduce items.
Duplicates of many photos in the Digital Collections at SDSU may be found on the Peoples Temple Flickr site, and are generally free to use if drawn from that site. But the digital quality of photos on the SDSU website is usually superior to that on Flickr.
California Historical Society Photos
Permission is always needed to use any photographs from the California Historical Society. For permission, write to Debra Kaufman at the California Historical Society.
Photos Recovered by the FBI
Photos taken by Peoples Temple members and recovered by FBI agents were released under the Freedom of Information Act and are free to use. Photos taken by FBI agents in Jonestown, Georgetown, and Port Kaituma were also released under the Freedom of Information Act and are free to use. These are available through the Flickr website.
Example: Photo recovered by the FBI and released under the Freedom of Information Act, through the Jonestown Institute
Example: Photo taken by FBI agents and released under the Freedom of Information Act, through the Jonestown Institute
Some of these photos also appear through SDSU Digital Collections in better resolution.
To our knowledge, none of the photographs in the Brian Holtz collection are in the public domain. Explicit permission would need to be secured from the photographer or photo source (e.g. Associated Press, other news sources, Getty Images, etc.). A few photographs appear to belong to Temple family members and may appear in the Peoples Temple Flickr Albums.