Birth of Emma Parascandola (Emma Bailey) in New York City

On March 6, 1910, Emma Parascandola—later known as Emma Bailey—was born in New York City, New York. Her urban birth and early years in New York and New Jersey shaped the sensibilities she later carried into rural Vermont, combining city sharpness with small‑town adaptability. Though detailed records of her childhood are limited, accounts note that she completed her schooling in Newark, New Jersey, suggesting a working‑ or lower‑middle‑class background typical of many immigrant and second‑generation families in the region.

Bailey’s birth in 1910 placed her in a generation of American women who came of age between the achievement of woman suffrage in 1920 and the economic turmoil of the Great Depression. The norms that governed women’s work, public speech, and leadership during her youth were highly restrictive: women were expected to remain in domestic or supportive roles, and professional paths in fields like auctioneering were virtually unheard of. Against this backdrop, her later choice to claim space on the auction block and in a national professional association would be all the more notable.

Recognizing the date of her birth is important not only for biographical completeness but also for situating her life within the broader currents of 20th‑century American history. Born at a time when the profession she would eventually transform was closed to women, Emma Bailey’s 1910 arrival marks the starting point of a trajectory that would, four decades later, challenge long‑standing assumptions about who could speak with authority in commercial public spaces.