Geologist and botanist L.W. Bailey studied under renowned scientist Louis Agassiz and botanist Asa Gray at Harvard University, from which he graduated with a B.A. in 1855. He then headed to Brown University for studies with chemist Josiah Parsons Cooke and received his M.A. there in 1859. He followed up these studies with mineralogical surveys for the governor of New Brunswick in 1863-1865, conducted with colleague George Frederic Matthews. This led to an ugly dispute with a more senior geologist, Henry Youle Hind, who appears to have felt that the two young men were encroaching on his field of expertise.
After Confederation the director of the Geological Survey of Canada, Sir William Edmond Logan, met with Bailey and Matthew in 1865 to discuss a survey of New Brunswick. The reports which the two submitted from 1872 to 1906 involved much difficult field work in which Bailey participated despite a lame leg, the result of a childhood accident. His son, Alfred, who later became an important poet and academic, often accompanied him on this field work. During this time he was also a professor at the University of New Brunswick, a position he occupied for 46 years, publishing over 100 scientific works. He received an honorary Ph.D. from the university in 1873 and an honorary LL.D. from Dalhousie University. Another honor was having a mountain named for him by his friend William Francis Ganong. When the Royal Society of Canada was founded in 1882, Bailey was a charter member.
He retired in 1907 but continued to do biological research, especially on diatoms.