Background
He was born on December 29, 1854, on a farm in the town of Lisbon, New Hampshire. In a family of four children he was the second son. When he was five years old his parents moved to Concord, New Hampshire, where he spent his youth.
He was born on December 29, 1854, on a farm in the town of Lisbon, New Hampshire. In a family of four children he was the second son. When he was five years old his parents moved to Concord, New Hampshire, where he spent his youth.
He attended Tilton Academy, from which he graduated in 1877, and received the degree of A. B. from Boston University in 1881, and that of A. M. three years later.
In 1923 the University of San Augustine, in Arequipa, conferred upon him the honorary degree of Sc. D. , and the title of Professor of Astronomy in that university, thus recognizing his scientific achievements and the long existing friendship between him and the cultural population of Arequipa.
Immediately after receiving the former he became headmaster of Tilton Academy, where he achieved a reputation for ability in handling young people and as an unusually successful teacher. In 1887, while studying at Harvard, he became a volunteer assistant at the Harvard Observatory, of which Edward C. Pickering was then director. From this time on, he was closely associated with astronomy at Harvard, rising from assistant in astronomy in 1891 to assistant professor in 1893, associate professor in 1898, Phillips Professor in 1912, and acting director of the Observatory in 1919. He held the title of professor emeritus from 1925 to 1931.
As an advisor to Prof. Edward C. Pickering, he proved of valuable assistance, especially in the selection of astronomical sites for observatories in the southern hemisphere, and in the establishment of the Arequipa station in the Peruvian Andes. He was sent in 1888 on a tour of the western United States and South America to test climatic conditions with the view to the erection of a secondary Harvard station, during which tour he made numerous photographic and visual astronomical observations. As a result of his investigations, Arequipa, Peru, at an elevation of 8, 050 feet, was selected for the site of the Boyden station of the Harvard Observatory, a station which remained, except in the years 1891-93, under his general supervision for nearly forty years.
He made many trips between Cambridge and Arequipa, the last in 1922. Bailey was a pioneer in the establishment of a chain of meteorological stations in Peru, from the summit of El Misti, at an elevation of 19, 200 feet, across the Cordillera, and down to Santa Ana in the Montana country. The observations carried on by Bailey and his successors were for many years the only extensive ones made in Peru. The meteorological data that resulted are preserved in Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard University where, also, Bailey's accounts of the ascent of El Misti and other explorations are vividly portrayed. He also spent a year in South Africa in 1908, where, as a result of his observations, several American observatories, including that of Harvard, have since set up auxiliary stations. Bailey excelled especially in the accumulation of observational facts.
As a writer he had the happy faculty of describing events and scientific facts in a manner which held the attention of the reader to the end. After he became professor emeritus he wrote The History and Work of Harvard Observatory, 1839 to 1927 (1931), an accurate account of the work and staff of that institution.
He died in his seventy-seventh year.
He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1892. He was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of many scientific societies in the United States and abroad.
In general he was modest and retiring, but could, on occasions, enliven a gathering with his humor and ready wit, especially when recounting experiences connected with his travels.
He was a man of strong physique, tall, and lithe. Had he not chosen to be an astronomer he might have achieved success as a diplomat, for both among his associates and in his contacts with people in foreign countries, he displayed tact and wisdom.
In 1883 he married Ruth Poulter, of Concord, New Hampshire, by whom he had two sons: Irving Widmer, professor of plant anatomy at Harvard, and Chester, who died in infancy.