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Liberty Hyde Bailey papers

 Collection
Identifier: 21-2-3342

COLLECTION DESCRIPTION

Personal, family, and professional papers relating to the life and work of Liberty Hyde Bailey and including correspondence, manuscripts, scrapbooks, journals, photographs, publications, genealogical and biographical information. Also records of the Bailey Hortorium. Correspondence and records of the Commission on Country Life. Also includes glass negatives of Bailiwick orchards and house construction; correspondence and agreements with Macmillan Company; photographs; Bailey's correspondence with his brother Marcus and daughter Ethel; and deeds, abstracts and title searches for the Bailey house on Sage Place; war ration books; agreement of gift of the Bailey Hortorium. Includes Bailey correspondence with Macmillan Company. Also, tape recordings (12 cassettes) and transcripts of an interview with Bailey by George H. M. Lawrence, 1951-1952, audio reels with interview by Edith Fox and Jackson Towne, 11/06/1951 and his typewriter and camera.

Includes a 1901 Junior Naturalist Club certificate signed by Bailey.

CD (MS Power Point) with posters prepared at Michigan State University using Cornell photographs, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Liberty Hyde Bailey, 2008. The posters were exhibited at the 2008 annual meetings of the American Society for Horticultural Science (July) and at the Great Lakes Expo (Michigan Horticultural Society and Michigan Vegetable Growers (December).

Printing block for the Loganberry illustration from "Gentes Herbarum," with page from the journal showing the illustration and a modern print; other various printing blocks, as well.

Dates

  • 1854 - 2004
  • Majority of material found within 1870 - 1958

Creator

Language of Materials

Collection material in English

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

CHRONOLOGY

March 15, 1858
Liberty Hyde Bailey, Jr. born near South Haven, Michigan
1862
Sarah Harrison Bailey, Liberty Hyde Bailey, Jr.'s mother, dies
1863
Liberty Hyde Bailey, Sr. marries Maria Bridges
1873
Liberty Hyde Bailey, Jr. delivers first public speech, "Birds," to the South Haven Pomological Society and is elected Ornithologist of the organization
1877-1882
Attends Michigan Agricultural College in Lansing, Michigan; studies Botany under the instruction of Dr. William Beal; meets Annette Smith
1882
Graduates from Michigan Agricultural College with a Bachelor of Science degree
1882
Works in Springfield, Illinois as a reporter for the Morning Monitor
Feb. 1883
Moves to Cambridge, Massachusetts to work as an assistant to Harvard botanist Asa Gray
June 1883
Marries Annette Smith
1885
Accepts professorship at Michigan Agricultural College; publishes first book "Talks Afield: About Plants and the Science of Plants"
1886
Receives Master of Science degree from Michigan Agricultural College
June 29, 1887
Daughter Sara May Bailey born
1887
Invited to give a series of lectures at Cornell
1889
Begins work as a Professor of Practical and Experimental Horticulture at Cornell
Nov. 17, 1889
Daughter Ethel Zoe Bailey born
1899
Appoints Anna Botsford Comstock as first female professor at Cornell
1904
Becomes Dean of New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell
1908
Leads a Commission on Country Life at the request of President Theodore Roosevelt
1911
Appoints Martha Van Rensselaer and Flora Rose as Professors in Home Economics
1913
Retires from position of Dean; begins a Herbarium at home on Sage Place
1917-1949
Travels around the world on plant collecting expeditions
1926
Elected President of the Botanical Society of America
1935
Gives Hortorium to Cornell
1935
Daughter Sara dies
1938
Wife Annette dies
1944
Bailey's idea for a campus arboretum, botanical garden, and research field is realized with the opening of the Cornell Plantations
Mar. 15, 1948
Bailey misses 90th birthday party in Ithaca because he is on plant collecting trip in West Indies
Dec. 25, 1954
Bailey dies at his home in Ithaca
1958
United States Post Office issues a commemoration stamp honoring gardening and horticulture in America

Extent

43.4 cubic feet. (43.4 cubic feet.)

Abstract

Material relating to the life and work of Liberty Hyde Bailey.

RELATED MATERIAL

SEPARATED MATERIAL

Several items relating to Bailey including the Bailey plow, portrait painted by Henry S. Hubbell for Bailey Hall, gold medals, canes, are located in the College of Agriculture Dean's Office, Chair of Plant Science's Office, and Mann Library. The Bailey Hortorium also houses Bailey books, publications, photographs, and artwork.

Physical Description

Correspondence, photographs, negatives, audio recordings, newsclippings, published material, scrapbooks, memorabilia.

General

Contact Information:
Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections 2B Carl A. Kroch Library Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 255-3530 Fax: (607) 255-9524 rareref@cornell.edu http://rmc.library.cornell.edu
Compiled by:
Sarah K. Gordon, Elaine Engst,Harlan Banks
Date completed:
July 20, 2004
EAD encoding:
Sarah K. Gordon,Peter Martinez, July 20, 2004Evan Earle, July 2013
Date modified:
FRedrika Loew, October 2018
Status
Completed
Author
Compiled by Sarah K. Gordon, Elaine Engst, Harlan Banks
Date
July 20, 2004
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script
Language of description note
ENG

Repository Details

Part of the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections Repository

Contact:
2B Carl A. Kroch Library
Cornell University
Ithaca NY 14853
607-255-3530
607-255-9524 (Fax)