AASP Primary Records Program

Irving Widmer Bailey

Available evidence seems to indicate that Harvard University was an early center for the investigation of pollen and spore morphology mainly due to the presence there of Irving W. Bailey from 1909 until his death in 1967. Although Bailey was basically a plant anatomist, he often collaborated with systematic botanists in the investigation of angiosperm genera and families. In this connection, he firmly believed that evidence of relationships should be based on the microscopic characteristics of all parts of the plants under investigation. One particular approach that he found to be of value was the comparative study of pollen grains. Even though I have not worked on that aspect of palynology for some time, I got my start in 1946 by comparative studies of the pollen of the primitive families Magnoliaceae and Annonaceae (Canright, 1953, 1962).

Palynological students include James Canright, Elso Barghoorn.

IRVING WIDMER BAILEY
August 15, 1884-May 16, 1967
By Ralph H. Wetmore
22 page biography
1974. Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) vol. 45.

Irving Widmer Bailey (1884-1967)

Harvard University Herbarium
www.huh.harvard.edu/libraries/archives/BAILEY.html

Biography:
Irving Widmer Bailey was born on August 15, 1884, in Tilton, N.H. and spent much of his youth in South America. He studied at Harvard, receiving a bachelor's degree in 1907 and a master's in forestry in 1909. Bailey was associated with Harvard for most of his career, first at the Bussey Institution and later at the Arnold Arboretum and the Gray Herbarium. During World War I, Bailey was in charge of the wood section of the materials engineering department of the Bureau of Aircraft Production. Bailey was the author of the controversial "Bailey Plan", which recommended the unification of botanical activities at Harvard (presented to the Harvard Corporation in 1945). Although he started in forestry, Bailey came to be known for his work in plant anatomy.

Bailey married Helen Diman Harwood in 1911. He died on May 16, 1967.

The Botanical Society of America Merit Award 1956
www.botany.org/newsite/awards/merit.php
Plant anatomist and inspiring teacher, for his outstanding contributions on the structure of the cell wall and the histology of the cambium and for his application of anatomy and morphology to problems of evolution of angiosperms.

REFERENCES (O.K. Davis. see the PNAS biography!)

Bailey, I.W. 1910.
Notes on the wood structure of the Betulaceae and Fagaceae Forest. Quart. 8: 178-185.

Bailey, I.W. 1960.
Some useful techniques in the study and interpretation of pollen morphology. J. Arnold Arboretum, 41: 141-148.

Bailey, I.W. and Sinnott, E.W. 1915.
A botanical index of Cretaceous and Tertiary climates. Science 41:831-834.

Bailey, I.W. and Sinnott, E.W. 1916.
The climatic distribution of certain types of angiosperm leaves. American Journal of Botany 3:24-39.

Barghoorn, E.S. 1967.
Irving Widmer Bailey 1884-1967. Bulletin - International Association of Wood Anatomists. 2: 2-4.

Barghoorn, E.S. and Bailey. I.W. 1940.
A useful method for the study of pollen in peat. Ecology 21: 513-514.

Canright, J. E. 1953.
The comparative morphology and relationships of the Magnoliaceae II. Significance of the pollen. Phytomorphology, Delhi, 3:355-365

________ 1962.
(Abst.) Comparative morphology of pollen of Annonaceae. Pollen et Spores 4:338.

________ 1995.
A Brief History of Some Major Contributors to the Development of Palynology in the United States. Palynos 18(2): 2-7.