Bailey, E. H. S. (Edgar Henry Summerfield), 1848-1933

Edgar Henry Summerfield Bailey was born in Middlefield, Connecticut in 1848. He studied chemistry at Yale and earned his doctorate degree at Illinois Wesleyan. Bailey was appointed to the chair of chemistry, mineralogy and metallurgy at the University of Kansas in 1883, where he served variously as head of the Chemistry Department until 1918, in full- and part-time professorships until his death in 1933.

In his first years at K.U., Bailey alone taught courses in general chemistry, qualitative chemistry, organic chemistry, assaying, mineralogy, metallurgy, blowpipe analysis, toxicology, physiological chemistry and materia medica. In 1886 he made K.U. one of the first schools in the nation to offer a domestic and sanitary chemistry class. He specialized in food and domestic science and qualitative analysis, developing the nation's first State Board of Health in Kansas, though he also lead the state's first geological survey, which began in 1889.

From the guide to the E.H.S. Bailey Personal Papers, 1647-1973, (University of Kansas Kenneth Spencer Research Library University Archives)