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Contact prints, circa 1965-1978, bulk: 1976-1977

 Series
Identifier: Series 1

Scope and Contents

The contact prints series documents the Temple's activities from the sixties through the seventies (with the overwhelming majority covering the years 1976-1977, including Temple bus trips, services, protests, and the early life of Jonestown).

These prints were designed to serve as a visual index to the Publications Department's photo negative files. First, a contact sheet would be printed off from a roll of negatives; then the individual contact prints would be cut apart and labeled on their backs with various metadata, usually including a roll number, the number of the shot within the roll, and sometimes a name or note identifying the subject. The indexing is not complete and does not encompass all of the contact prints in this series, but enough of it is complete to allow researchers to use the index as intended.

This series has several potential applications for the researcher. It documents the Department's extremely prolific photography, as well as what its staff found significant or aesthetically appealing about the Temple -- which was often the personal and intimate side of church life. In these photographs, members relax at bus trip rest stops, Guyanese orchids bloom, cats and dogs relax on the floor, and people smile from portraits. The series also documents the way Temple publicity staff represented Jim Jones: leading services, performing his faith healings, and as a civic leader and quasi-politician.

Dates

  • circa 1965-1978
  • Majority of material found within 1976-1977

Restricted Materials

Sealed and closed until 2051: 1976-05-11 Enemies That Have Left, Box 51, Folder 20

Sealed and closed until 2053: Restricted Contact Sheets from 90220-91399, Box 51, Folder 6 Restricted Contact Prints and Negatives, Box 51, Folder 9 People Who Left the Temple, Box 51, Folder 17 Photographs of People Who Left Peoples Temple, Box 51, Folder 18

Enemies That Have Gone Out, Box 51, Folder 21

Extent

7 Linear Feet (10 o-ring preservation box albums, 2 legal document boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Processing Information

The materials in this series were highly but incompletely organized by the Publications Department; most of the materials arrived already placed in titled sections in organized binders, but some were simply placed in boxes, envelopes, and folders. Some of the latter materials were labeled and some not. In rehousing and describing the materials, the processing archivists used the original titles whenever this was possible, and provided titles when it was not (the modern titles have been written in square brackets so that they can be easily differentiated).

Repository Details

Part of the California Historical Society Repository

Contact:
678 Mission Street
San Francisco CA 94105