Naturalist Alfred Marshall Bailey (1894 -- 1978) was born in Iowa City, Iowa. He graduated from the University of Iowa in 1916. As an undergraduate he took part in the government-sponsored experdition to Laysan Island. This was the first of many experditions he would take in his career. In 1919 he joined the U.S. Biological Survey in Alaska. Two years later as a staff member of the Denver Museum of Natural History, he led expeditions to Siberia and Arctic Alaska. He returned to the Denver Museum of Natural History as its director in 1936. He remained there until his death at the age of 84. Bailey's specialty was ornithology, and he wrote a number of articles and books on the subject, including Birds of New Zealand and Birds of Colorado.