Personal and Project Files, 1919-1985 and undated

Gene Chesley's personal files document his involvement in the National List and his activities in promoting theatre preservation in general. His files concern the administration of the historic theatre survey as well as the contributions of Jack Neeson, Iain Mackintosh, and John Russell, who assisted Chesley. Neeson, a professor at Chatham College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, visited and documented many eastern United States theatres in the late 1970s. Iain Mackintosh of the London-based Theatre Projects Consultants, Limited, consulted with Chesley through the "Curtains!" project which focused on the restoration of British theatres. Photographer John Russell was associated with the Mabel Tainter Theatre in Menomonie, Wisconsin. The personal files also include sample survey and questionnaire forms, bibliographic sources used by Chesley in locating theatres, copies of the "National List" (1975-1979), Chesley's contact address files, and materials on the organization and administration of the League of Historic American Theatres. The project files include a number of activities tangentially related to the performance halls including Circus and Vaudeville, the Opera Trunk Project, Circuits, the Theatre Museum, Showboats, and the Smithsonian Touring Project as well as miscellaneous materials on theatre preservation including management policy statements and funding sources.

Chesley's collection focused on extant theatres, but his research also chronicled the destruction of old performance halls. The general files (labeled "Demolished Theatres") contain historical materials that identify and describe, when possible, the theatre as it stood before demolition. The general files also include bibliographic materials used initially by Chesley to identify sites and other projects. Files are organized alphabetically by file heading.