< RETURN HOME

Sawfish History

Alfred M. Bailey (1894-1978) graduated for the University of Iowa in 1916. Inspired by the Museum's Laysan Island Cyclorama, Bailey joined the U.S. government expedition to Laysan Island serving as the party's19 year-old cook. This was the first of many expeditions he would make in his career.

After graduating Bailey went to the Louisiana State Museum of Natural History where he worked as a curator until 1919. It was during his tenure at LSU that he captured the sawfish.

In 1919 Bailey joined the U.S. Biological Survey (now the Fish and Wildlife Service) in Alaska. Two years later, as curator of birds and mammals at the Denver Museum of Natural History he led an 18-month expedition through Siberia and arctic Alaska. From 1926 to 1936 he worked at the Field Museum in Chicago. While he was there he made a 2,000 journey on mule-back through then little known Abyssinia (now Ethiopia). He returned to the Denver Museum of Natural History in 1936, serving as its director. In his 33 years in that position he led museum expeditions to every continent except Antarctica. Bailey was an ornithologist who wrote a number of books including Birds of Arctic Alaska (1949), Laysan and Black-footed Albatrosses (1952), Birds of New Zealand (1955) and Red Crossbills of Colorado. In addition he wrote more than 200 published articles.