Ethel Zoe Bailey

Ethel Zoe Bailey (1889-1983) was a U.S. botanist and the first curator of the Bailey Hortorium at Cornell University from 1935 to 1957. She created the Ethel Z. Bailey Horticultural Catalogue Collection and in 1912 was the first woman in Ithaca, New York to earn a driver's license.

Early life and education Ethel Zoe Bailey was born on November 17, 1889 to her mother and father, botanist Liberty Hyde Bailey. She graduated from Smith College in 1911 with her bachelor's degree in zoology, She co-authored two reference books with her father, including Hortus and Hortus Second, the latter of which published in 1969. After her father's death, Bailey revised and oversaw the publication of a third and updated volume, Hortus Third, with the staff of the Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium in 1975.

Bailey worked at Cornell University's Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium as the institution's first curator from 1935 to 1957. She also compiled and indexed botanical samples from different countries.

Bailey is buried at Lake View Cemetery in Ithaca, New York.