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Bailey, Loring Woart
Loring Woart Bailey, geologist, educator (b at West Point, NY 28 Sept 1839; d at Fredericton 10 Jan 1925). Son of a professor at the US Military Academy, Bailey was educated at Harvard and Brown and knew many important scientists. At the University of New Brunswick he taught chemistry and natural science 1861-1900 and biology and geology 1900-07. Bailey pursued interests in geology, biology, anthropology and applied physics.
In 1863 and 1864, accompanied by G.F. Matthew and C.F. Hartt, he undertook mineralogical and geological surveys of NB. They discovered the Silurian (Cambrian) age of the rock formations, not Precambrian as had been believed, and laid the foundations for elucidating the entire geological region, including New England. From 1868 Bailey contributed summer fieldwork to the Geological Survey of Canada. An Royal Society of Canada charter member (1882), he retired as professor in 1907; then as a member of the Biological Board he continued his earlier researches on Canadian diatoms.
