After initially pursuing a career in law, Bob Bailey opened his commercial photography studio in 1929. The Bob Bailey Studios met with great success; its team of photographers, led by Bailey and his younger brother Marvin, captured images throughout Houston and environs for over sixty years. The studio completed work for a variety of regional and national clients, including the Interstate and Metropolitan theater chains, Foley’s and Sakowitz’s department stores, Ford and Chevrolet automobile companies, construction giant Miner-Dederick, energy companies such as Texaco and Tenneco, and politicians Jesse Jones, Oscar Holcombe, and Roy Hofheinz.
The studio remained operational for over twenty years after Bob Bailey’s death in 1971, finally closing upon Marvin Bailey’s retirement during the mid-1990s. Marvin Bailey died in 1998.
The Houston Photographic and Architectural Trust acquired the archives of the Bob Bailey Studio after the retirement of Marvin Bailey. These materials were transferred to the Center for American History in several accessions beginning in 1998.
From the guide to the Bob Bailey Studios Photographic Archive 2004-167., ca. 1932-1998, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)
