ROOTS & BRANCHES Inheritied Stories
The men and women who came before me lived remarkable lives—some documented, some nearly forgotten. My paternal grandfather, Truman Bailey, was an artist, photographer, and writer who spent the 1930s collecting textiles in Polynesia and Peru, publishing Polynesia Venture in 1939. My maternal grandfather was an engineer at Lockheed during WWII, helping design aircraft that changed the war.
Further back, the line runs through the American Civil War, the Underground Railroad, patriots in the American Revolution, and the French and Indian Wars. Soldiers, abolitionists, builders—people who showed up when history demanded it.
This is what I’ve been able to piece together about where I come from, and what got passed down to my five kids and three grandkids. The branches keep growing.
AMERICAN CIVIL WAR
Five brothers answered the call when the Union was threatened by the rebel Army. Meet the Bailey men who joined the Iowa Infantry in 1861 through the eyes of George Bailey who documented their adventures as a family of pioneers and their experiences during these horrible times.
TRUMAN ESTEE BAILEY
In the 1930s, when most men his age were looking for steady work during the Depression, my grandfather Truman Bailey was sailing through Polynesia and trekking through Peru, collecting indigenous textiles and documenting vanishing cultures. He was an artist first—a painter and photographer with an eye for pattern, color, and craft—but he was also a writer who understood that these textiles told stories worth preserving.
His book, Polynesia Venture, published in 1939, chronicled those years of wandering remote islands, trading with local artisans, and sleeping in places that didn’t appear on most maps. The textiles he collected—now scattered across museums and private collections—represent traditions that in many cases no longer exist.
He passed down more than artifacts. He passed down the idea that a life spent chasing curiosity and beauty, however impractical, was a life worth living.
ROSALIE MAUS BAILEY
Rosalie was born in 1903 – and had an incredible memory. She was barely three years old during the San Fransico earthquake – and she could remember it.
Her father, John “Yi” Maus was a vaudville musician, and they ended up in the San Francisco peninsula – my grandma sometimes having to perform on banjo.
She attended the San Francisco Academy of Fine Arts in 1923 where she met my grandfather Truman. She was a talented sculptres who inspired not only me but countless others with her art.
