Days 1–3 in the archives
Reposting these from Facebook. Model developing. All just wind and weather.
In 1903, Liberty Hyde Bailey was asked by Roscoe Conklin Bruce, then Director of the Tuskegee Institute (where Booker T. Washington was principal), “if among your recent graduates there is a Negro capable of teaching Elementary Agriculture in this Institute.” One week later he wrote again, thanking Prof. Bailey for his speedy response recommending two strong candidates, one of whom had already begun working at Tuskegee, in charge of the Landscape Division.
Day 1 in the archive, accidental find.
#baileythings
Day 2 in the archives
In his role as chair of President Theodore Roosevelt’s Commission on Country Life in 1908, Bailey exchanged correspondence with and sought advice from such leaders in African American college education as W. E. B. Du Bois, G. R. Bridgeforth (of Tuskegee Institute), E. L. Blackshear, and Ad Wimbs.
In 1907–08, he collected correspondence from an extensive list of deans, directors, and professors around the country on the subject of teaching agricultural education for the primary and secondary schools, for a report to the U.S. Bureau of Education (which perhaps morphed into one of his books, like The Training of Farmers or The State and the Farmer), an issue that would prove to be of widespread concern in the Commission’s work in late 1908. The response he received from the Hampton Institute (a historically black normal and agricultural college) he would evidently adopt for one of his manuscripts, as it contains his notations to the typist and manuscript page numbers in the top corners.
And Bailey may have been a member of the Grange. If not, he was respected enough by Grange leaders to be referred to as “brother.”
All facts not available in the existing biographies. #baileythings
Day 3 in the archives
It turns out President Theodore Roosevelt pushed Liberty Hyde Bailey really hard to accept the position as chairman of the national Commission on Country Life. Bailey said he couldn’t due to other pressures on his time, but Roosevelt basically guilted him into it, telling Bailey “you owe it to me” based on conversations they had previously had, and that by not participating it would all fall apart. At which point Bailey gave in.
Their correspondence is fascinating and includes some really good reading.
Fun fact: Bailey refused to let journals, magazines, and newspapers print his portrait for much of his life. He wanted to advertise the Commission, he told many journalists, but was not interested in advertising himself.
And contrary to my initial understanding, Bailey did not write the commission’s report all himself. He edited it all together and made it work as a document, but it was indeed jointly drafted, at least initially, by all of the initial members of the Commission — Bailey, “Uncle” Henry Wallace, Gifford Pinchot, Kenyon Butterfield, and Walter Page.
The Commission distributed at least 500,000 circulars, in addition to their nationwide tour of hearings and the thousands and thousands of local meetings they encouraged around the country in rural areas. It sounds like an exciting moment. It wasn’t long before the office in Washington was receiving upwards of a thousand responses in the mail daily.
And it was the opinion of Bailey and Wallace, and likely others, that the initial harsh pushback against the Commission’s report in 1909 was due to large financial interests opposed to the parcel post — a service which the Commission strongly recommended, and which came to pass in 1913.
#baileythings
For some context, see my intro post. To get in touch, use my website.
The archive archive: Intro
Insights all gleaned from Liberty Hyde Bailey Papers, #21–2–3342, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
