Bailey Willis papers, 1894-1949

Bailey Willis was a geologist with the United States Geological Survey from 1884 to 1915. He was chairman of Stanford University's Geology Department from 1916 to1922. In 1903-1904 Willis led an expedition into China for the Carnegie Institution. His route took him through Austria and Russia. He traveled on the newly-built Trans-Siberian railroad and entered China from the north. In 1910 he took ship for South America to study Patagonia. After retiring from Stanford in 1922, he embarked on a series of explorations in Asia and Africa, studying geology and culture. Willis traveled extensively in India and the Philippines in the 1920s and 1930s. He also visited Japan, Sumatra, and Java. In 1929 he traveled the length of the African continent. In addition to scientific monographs, Willis published general readership travel accounts, including "Living Africa" (1930), "A Yanqui in Patagonia" (1947), and "Friendly China" (1949).