1877-1888: Student/Teacher 

1877-1882: Liberty Hyde Bailey Bailey studies at Michigan Agricultural College, (now known as Michigan State University) under Professor William James Beal. 1882: Accepts position as a reporter for the now defunct Springfield, Illinois Monitor. 1883–1884: Bailey attends Harvard University as an assistant to Professor Asa Gray. June 6th, 1883: Bailey marries Annette Smith. 1885: Bailey returns to State as Professor and Chair of Horticulture and Landscape Gardening, establishing the first horticulture department in the United States. Publishes paper, The Garden Fence, stressing the need to bridge the disciplines of botany and horticulture. Publishes his first book, Talks Afield: About Plants and the Science of Plants. June 29th, 1887: Sara May Bailey born. 1888: Bailey designs and builds the first laboratory in the United States devoted to scientific horticulture, now known at Eustace-Cole Hall.

Liberty Hyde Bailey [back left] and friends at the Michigan Agricultural College, Tintype, 1879