Liberty Hyde Bailey (1858 - 1954)
Scanned image from photograph,
ca. 1945 in Special Collections

      March 15 marks the 144th anniversary of the birth of Liberty Hyde Bailey (1858-1954), renowned agricultural scientist. To recognize this anniversary, Special Collections will exhibit items from the Papers of George H. M. Lawrence, a student and then a colleague of Bailey's.  Items from the Rare Book collection highlighting some of Dr. Bailey's and Dr. Lawrence's contributions to the fields of agriculture and botany will also be displayed.

      George H. M. Lawrence was a graduate of Rhode Island State College, earning his Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in 1932 and 1933 respectively. He then went on to serve as grounds keeper of Rhode Island State Hospital until 1936.Lawrence received his Ph.D. from Cornell University where he was a student of the renown horticulturist, Liberty Hyde Bailey. After his graduation in 1939, he stayed on to became Bailey's assistant at the Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium. In 1946, after war duty, he returned to Cornell and served as Professor of Botany. In 1951, Lawrence was named Director of the Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium and published Taxonomy of Vascular Plants. In 1954 became editor of Baileya, a quarterly journal of horticultural taxonomy from 1954 to 1960. During the mid 1950s Lawrence traveled to England. While away he kept a close correspondence with Dr. Bailey and the Hortorium staff. These letters are among the Lawrence Papers in Special Collections.

     In 1960, Lawrence left the Hortorium to become director of the newly established Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt Botanical Library at the then Carnegie Institute of Technology now Carnegie Mellon University. As its founding director, Lawrence developed the Library as one of the finest botanical libraries in the country. One of his greatest accomplishments was the acquisition of 4000 items from the private library of Dr. Birger Strandell of Sweden, a direct descendent of Linnaeus. He stepped down in 1970 due to failing health and moved back to his native Rhode Island He spent the rest of his life compiling and annotating a catalogue of the Linneaus materials for the Hunt Library. In addition to work on the Linneaus Catalogue, he was very interested in Rhode Island history and genealogy. an avid book collector, he collected many rare books on the subject. George H. M. Lawrence was a member of the URI Century Club and a trustee of the URI Foundation and Chairman of the Foundation's Campus Beautification Committee. In 1977 he compiled a pamphlet detailing statistics and accomplishments of the class of 1934 for its 45^th reunion. 

     George H. M. Lawrence died in East Greenwich in 1978. His widow, Miriam, donated his papers along with a fine collection of books on Rhode Island and horticultural topics in 1984 and 1985.