Liberty Hyde Bailey
| Liberty Hyde Bailey | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
March 15, 1858 South Haven, Michigan |
| Died | December 25, 1954 (aged 96) Ithaca, New York |
| Citizenship | American |
| Fields | botanist |
| Institutions | Cornell University |
| Alma mater | Michigan Agricultural College |
| Influences | Charles Darwin, Asa Gray |
Liberty Hyde Bailey (March 15, 1858 – December 25, 1954) was an American horticulturist, botanist and cofounder of the American Society for Horticultural Science.
Born in South Haven, Michigan, as the third son of farmers Liberty Hyde Bailey Sr. and Sarah Harrison Bailey, Bailey entered the Michigan Agricultural College (MAC, now Michigan State University) in 1878 and graduated in 1882. The next year, he became assistant to the renowned botanist Asa Gray, of Harvard University. This was arranged by a professor at MAC, William James Beal. Bailey spent two years with Gray as his herbarium assistant. The same year, he married Annette Smith, the daughter of a Michigan cattle breeder, whom he met at the Michigan Agricultural College. They had two daughters, Sara May, born in 1887, and Ethel Zoe, born in 1889.
In 1885, he moved to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he in 1888 assumed the chair of Practical and Experimental Horticulture. He was elected an Associate Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1900. He founded the College of Agriculture, and in 1904 he was able to secure public funding. He was dean of what was then known as New York State College of Agriculture from 1903-1913. In 1908, he was appointed Chairman of The National Commission on Country Life by president Theodore Roosevelt. Its 1909 Report called for rebuilding a great agricultural civilization in America. In 1913, he retired to become a private scholar and devote more time to social and political issues. In 1917 he was elected a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences.
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