Greene, Wesley H., 1907-

Wesley H. Greene operated a Chicago-based film distributorship, and also worked as an educator, administrator and activist focused on film and the visual arts. His distribution concerns, including International Film Bureau, College Film Center, and Trans-World Films, handled a variety of film genres and served schools, colleges and universities, churches, clubs and businesses. This collection includes records of Greene's film distribution companies; posters and other movie publicity material; records of the Chicago Film Council; programs from Greene's international film series at University of Chicago; records of the Committee to Preserve the Ferguson Fund for Sculpture and Greene's litigation against the Art Institute of Chicago; and personal correspondence and memorabilia.

From the description of Wesley H. Greene papers, 1900-1996 (inclusive) (University of Chicago Library). WorldCat record id: 613710562

Wesley Hammond Greene was born in Romney, West Virginia in 1907, and educated at Randolph-Macon College (A.B. 1927) and University of Virginia (A.M. 1929). He began his career in education as a history and social sciences teacher, working in Virginia high schools, Allegheny College, and the University of Chicago's Laboratory Schools.

Through work with the University of Chicago's International House, Greene became interested in film as an educational medium. In 1937, he incorporated International Film Bureau, an importer and exporter of educational films. Greene subsequently created additional branches of his distributorship, including College Film Center, which specialized in low-cost rentals of classroom films, and Trans-World Films, which distributed foreign films and general entertainment titles. Greene's companies handled a variety of film genres, particularly European and Latin American features, art and experimental films, foreign language instruction series, vocational guidance films, and classic entertainment titles. Greene's clients included schools, colleges and universities, churches, clubs and businesses.

In the 1930s, Greene developed film series in coordination with University of Chicago affiliated organizations such as International House, the Renaissance Society, and the University Film Society. During the early 1940s, Greene and his family moved to Canada, where he served on the National Film Board. In Chicago, he was active on the Chicago Film Council, and organized the group's Films of the World Festival in 1947.

In 1957, Greene led the Committee to Preserve the Ferguson Fund for Sculpture in challenging the Art Institute of Chicago's administration of the Benjamin F. Ferguson Fund. Established in 1905 for the development of the Chicago's sculpture and monument collections, the fund had been used by the Art Institute of Chicago for building construction, maintenance and other administrative and operational costs. The committee's efforts culminated in Wesley Greene vs. the Art Institute of Chicago and the Northern Trust Company.

Greene married the artist Marie Zoe Greene-Mercier in 1937; the couple lived in Hyde Park and raised three sons.

From the guide to the Greene, Wesley H. Papers, 1900-1996, (Special Collections Research Center University of Chicago Library 1100 East 57th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A.)