Cornell Cooperative Extension Tompkins County Votes to Adopt the Bailey Center Project, Accept Donations

We are delighted to share that The Liberty Hyde Bailey Center is now officially a project of Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) Tompkins County! In their May 7 meeting, the Board of Directors of CCE Tompkins County voted to approve adoption of The Liberty Hyde Bailey Center Project in its start-up phase.

CCE Tompkins County is not only an independent 501c3 nonprofit organization with 113 years of history and experience, but it also represents so many of the Bailey Center project’s values and ambitions related to intellectual and practical engagement in and alongside communities. Bailey himself is often credited as a founding figure in the development of university extension, having directed Cornell University’s pioneering extension work from 1894-1902, well before the Smith-Lever Act created a nationwide system of university extension in 1914. His vision of extension’s purpose and promise, which continues to resonate through the Cornell Cooperative Extension network today, is summarized this way by Scott J. Peters in his historical essay describing Cornell’s early years of extension work under Bailey’s leadership:

Bailey's vision of agricultural extension work was centered on the provision of education aimed at awakening farmers to a new point of view on life. The new point of view combined sympathy with nature, a love of country life, and a scientific attitude, expressed by a habit of careful observation and experimentation. The main purpose of awakening farmers to this point of view was not to develop a more efficient, productive, and profitable agriculture, but to advance the larger cultural ideals of a “self-sustaining” agriculture and personal happiness.

This partnership with CCE Tompkins County in the work of the Bailey Center will continue long after it has moved beyond its start-up phase, in work like the Liberty Greenhouse and Gardens initiative and the Nature-Study at Bailiwick programs outlined in our Vision of Work.

It also means that donations can now be accepted to the Liberty Hyde Bailey Center Project. To donate and help the Center launch, please download and fill out our donations form.

Photograph of Liberty Hyde Bailey, believed to be seated at his office desk in Morrill Hall, 1895. Courtesy of The Liberty Hyde Bailey Museum & Gardens, South Haven, Michigan.