Dillon, Joan, 1925-

Joan Kent Dillon (b. 1925) is a nationally known historic preservation activist, having served on the Board of Directors of the National Trust for Historic Preservation from 1980 to 1989 and the Smithsonian Institution from 1989 to the present. A 1947 graduate of Smith College, she also earned an M.A. in History from the University of Missouri in 1969. A long-time resident of Kansas City, Dillon began her involvement with historic theaters in 1974, when she purchased the Folly Theater in the city center. Over the next thirteen years she raised more than $5 million to renovate the former burlesque hall. Her activities with the Folly Theater led to her involvement with the League of Historic American Theaters (LHAT), on whose Board of Directors she served after 1978. Through her growing involvement with theaters, she met David Naylor, a photographer and author of two books on American movie theaters. Together they decided to pursue Dillon's longstanding idea of a book on nineteenth-century American theaters. With support from LHAT and other theater organizations, they obtained a publishing contract with the Preservation Press. In the period between 1994 and 1996, they traveled extensively, viewing, evaluating, and photographing theaters throughout the United States. The resulting book, American Theaters: Performance Halls of the Nineteenth Century, appeared in 1997. At the time of the donation of this collection, Dillon lived in Chatham, Massachusetts.

From the guide to the Joan Dillon papers, 1862-1998, 1993-1997, (State of Maryland and Historical Collections)

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