A Pioneer of the University: History from University Archives

E.H.S. Bailey

The formative years of great nations, successful organizations and esteemed associations are filled with men and women of vision and inventiveness. These pioneers set forth principles and ideals, laying the foundation that will shape growth for years to come. The first 25 years of the University of Kansas saw a number of great teachers and administrators who are memorialized in the names of buildings on the campus today: Francis H. Snow, entomologist and chancellor, Lewis Lindsay Dyche, naturalist and explorer, Frank Marvin, civil engineer and gifted amateur musician, William Herbert Carruth, teacher and poet, and Olin Templin, philosopher. In the midst of this group was a man whose life gathered threads from a multitude of directions and wove them into a fabric that stands for all that KU offers: education for its students, the historical presence of the campus within the community, service to the people of Kansas, and expansion of the world of knowledge for all. His name was E.H.S. Bailey.

Bailey's career at the University of Kansas spanned more than 50 years. With a bachelor's degree from Yale and a Ph.D. from Illinois Wesleyan, he was appointed to the chair of chemistry, mineralogy and metallurgy by the Kansas Board of Regents in 1883 at a salary of $1,600. When Bailey arrived at KU there were 582 students and 19 teachers, with 35 students enrolled in the chemistry department, where he became the sole faculty member. For several years he ran a one-man show, teaching general chemistry, qualitative chemistry, organic chemistry, assaying, mineralogy, metallurgy, blowpipe analysis, toxicology, physiological chemistry and materia medica. In 1886 eight students enrolled in Bailey's domestic and sanitary chemistry class, making KU one of the first schools in the nation to offer studies in practical chemistry. From these humble beginnings the resourceful professor sowed many of the seeds that sparked KU's explosive leap from a quaint liberal arts school with a religious flair to a hotbed of scientific and intellectual curiosity. His imprint can be seen in the origins of the departments of home economics, geology, and chemical engineering, the school of pharmacy and the Kansas Geological Survey. click here for amore detailed imageTestimony to his personal style is found in his affectionate tutelage of students and colleagues, many of whom went on to make important contributions to scientific knowledge. In a specifically material sense he also made his mark in the planning and construction of two buildings. The first was the chemistry building, constructed in 1883-84 to the design of J.G. Haskell. At a later date it became an anatomy laboratory, then the "Journalism Shack," finally being razed in 1962 to make room for a major expansion of Watson Library. Bailey's second building still stands on the corner of Jayhawk Boulevard and Sunflower Road. He worked hand-in-hand with Haskell, designing a new abode for the ever-expanding chemistry department, seeing the structure come to completion in 1900. In 1939 the Board of Regents honored Bailey by naming the building Bailey Chemical Laboratories. After the chemistry department moved to Malott Hall in 1954 the building was radically renovated to fit the needs of the School of Education and  its name shortened to Bailey Hall. In 1993 a group of preservation-minded citizens visited campus, gathering materials to support their contention that Bailey's building should be placed on the register of historically important buildings in Kansas.

Bailey's relationship with home economics started well before the Board of Regents created the department in 1910. In those early days this field of study was called domestic science, and Bailey lectured on that science, exploring the topics of food, physiology and sanitation. He was also a loyal member of the Home Economics Club. His book The Source, Chemistry and Use of Food Products, published in 1914, was widely used by home economists and food chemists throughout the country.

Bailey was a versatile man, as comfortable in the kitchens of domestic scientists as he was roaming about the Kansas countryside, and with a clear vision of how the land had been shaped from prehistoric ocean, swamp and savanna. When in 1889 the Kansas Legislature authorized KU to undertake "any geological survey or scientific work which may . . . benefit the science of the state", Bailey was an obvious leader for the resulting Kansas Geological Survey, in partnership with Erasmus Haworth (physical geology and mineralogy) and Samuel Williston (paleontology). Between 1898 and 1908 this trio of scientists wrote The University Geological Survey of Kansas. This nine-volume work included their explorations on Kansas' paleontology sites, coal, gypsum, mineral waters, oil, gas, lead and zinc.

Bailey's primary contribution to this survey analyzed the bath-houses and hotels built around the springs, and incorporated a number of his own photographs.. As early as 1910 he experimented with color photography. Eventually his avocation insinuated itself into his work place; a photography laboratory was added to the chemistry department for the making of lantern slides, duplication of printed materials and other applications. Bailey's laboratory ultimately developed into the Office of University Relations photography bureau.

In addition to Bailey's service as the state of Kansas' chief chemist to the Geological Survey, he was the head chemist for the state's board of health. In this capacity he oversaw the state food and beverage laboratory and drug, sewage and water laboratories located in KU's chemistry department.

Bailey was also responsible for a less serious but nonetheless abiding contribution to his University, and one of its oldest traditions. He composed the Rock Chalk Yell at the behest of the Science Club in May of 1889.

Bailey had a knack for spawning talented scientists and teachers. His proteges were known as "Bailey's boys". Edward C. Franklin was one of the first to study under Bailey, receiving degrees in 1888 and 1890. Franklin taught at KU with Bailey for 17 years, moving to Stanford University in 1903. Edwin E. Slosson, who earned degrees in 1890 and 1892, taught in the chemistry department, and later founded the Science Service Center in Washington, D.C., which distributed popular scientific information. Others included E.C. McClung, who discovered the significance of sex chromosomes, Robert Duncan, who became the first head of the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research, George E. Coghill, a pioneer in neurology, Hamilton Cady, who isolated helium, W.C. Hoad, who worked on methods of water purification, M.A. Barber, a noted expert in preventive medicine, and Elmer V. McCollum, the discoverer of vitamins A and C.

There were countless more of "Bailey's boys." In fact, it is unlikely that there has ever been a professor at KU more loved and admired. One former student remembered him as "a prince of a fellow with an indefatigable work ethic". Other observers said that it was Bailey's sheer enthusiasm for the miracle of life, his extraordinary kindness and his deep understanding of human foibles that made him such a remarkable inspiration to his students and colleagues.

Bailey served as head of the Department of Chemistry from 1883 to 1918, then as a part-time professor from 1921 to 1933. At the time of his death in 1933, there were 3,672 students and hundreds of faculty at KU. The Department of Chemistry numbered 547 students and 21 faculty.

Around the time of the 25th anniversary of KU in 1891, Bailey and some of his colleagues decided that some of their intellectual and scientific proceedings, as well as a few of their more light-hearted  moments, might be of interest to readers and researchers of a historical bent in years to come. Thus Bailey, Vernon Kellogg (entomology), Wilson Sterling (Greek), William Carruth and Raphael O'Leary (English) teamed up and began gathering "college papers, pamphlets, speeches, newspapers, catalogues, programs of university affairs, photographs and any and all things of similar character . . ." They called this project the Memorabilia Club, and it was the genesis of the University Archives. The Memorabilia Club was short-lived, but other efforts to gather material continued in fits and starts for the next 77 years. Momentum picked up when Robert Taft, another chemistry professor and photography buff, wrote Across the Years on Mount Oread for the University's 75th anniversary in 1941. More interest was aroused in the 1960s when Clifford Griffin, professor of history, began gathering material for his remarkable book, The University of Kansas: A History. Yet it was not until Helen Spencer established the Kenneth Spencer Research Library in 1968 that the seeds which Bailey and his associates sowed in 1891 came to full bloom under the careful guidance of John Nugent. For 25 years Nugent worked as KU's archivist, building one of the nation's finest university archives, very much in the spirit of E.H.S. Bailey.