William Whitman Bailey papers

William Whitman Bailey was born in West Point, NewYork on February 22, 1843, the youngest child of Professor Jacob Whitman Bailey and Maria Slaughter. In 1852, at the age of 9 young Bailey embarked with his father, mother and only sister, on board the Henry Clay from, West Point New York. Fire broke out on the steamer and amidst the chaos, his mother and sister were drowned. He suffered greatly from the shock which weakened his constitution consequently affecting his health for the rest of his life.

He left West Point in 1857, a few days before his father's death, and went to Providence where he entered the University Grammar School. In 1860 he entered Brown University. During his college career, in 1862, during the Civil War, he enlisted as a provate in the Tenth Regimen in Rhode Island Volunteers for 3 months. His health broke down and he returned to Providence. He graduated in 1864 and served in the Chemical Laboratory until 1866 when he became Assistant Chemist at Manchester Print Works, N.H. and later became Assistant in the Chemical laboratory of Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In 1867 he heard of the United States Geological Exploration of the 40th Parallel. He sought and acquired the position of Botanist although in 1868 his health broke down and Sereno Watson took his place. He was engaged in various occupations for several years, including teaching summer school at Harvard but his botanical career was said to have begun in 1877 when he started a private class of Botany at Brown. This was the beginning of a long course of botanical instruction covering nearly 30 years. He became Professor of Botany in 1881 and devoted himself to teaching systematic botany and vegetable morphology until his failing health compelled his resignation in 1906.

He died on February 20, 1914. His wife, Eliza Randall Simmons of Providence, R.I. and two children, Whitman and Margaret Emerson survived him.