An "hltelligent" shell is a shell structure with a self-sensation and action/reaction capabilities contributed by built-in sensors, actuators and control electronic systems. In this study, a new intelligent shell structure composed of a conventional elastic shell, a distributed piezoelectric sensor and a distributed piezoelectric actuator is proposed. The distributed sensor provides a self-monitoring capability to sense shell oscillation and the distributed actuator contributes a self-correction (control) capability to counteract the oscillation. A new generic theory for the intelligent shell system is developed. System equations of motion coupling sensing and control effects are derived. From the theory derived, it is concluded that the distributed sensor is (theoretically) capable of sensing all shell vibration modes and the distributed actuator controlling all shell modes. However, the sensing or control effort of each mode could be different. Two feedback control algorithms, namely direct feedback control and Lyapunov control, are proposed in the paper. The generic theory can be simplified to account for other general geometries, such as cylinder, plates, beams, etc. Applications of the theow are also demonstrated.