Lydia R. Bailey (1779-1869) owned and operated on of the busiest printing establishments in nineteenth century Philadelphia.

Lydia Steele was born February 1, 1779 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania to Captain William Steele (1750-1822) and Elizabeth Bailey (1754-1826). The Steeles were a prosperous Lancaster family; William, his father, and his brothers all served with distinction in the American Revolution. The brothers established a paper mill in Lancaster County after the war and became important players in Philadelphia politics. Elizabeth Bailey was the sister of the prominent Revolutionary-era printers, Jacob and Francis Bailey. Francis was one of the United States' first typefounders and an official printer for Congress and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

In 1797, Steele married her cousin, Robert Bailey (1774-1808), who was managing his father Francis's Philadelphia printing office. She worked alongside her husband in his struggling effort to run a successful printing business until his death in 1808. At which time she took over the business, paid off her husband's debts, and transformed it into a thriving printing establishment under her own imprint.

After initially turning to her uncles for help and business, Bailey succeeded in getting contracts with a number of government agencies, the University of Pennsylvania, and various banks and canal companies. In 1813, she obtained a contract to become Philadelphia's official city printer. Bailey concentrated her shop's energies on book and job printing for others: blank forms, almanacs, annual reports, booksellers' catalogs, broadsides, and chapbooks.

Although she was assisted by her son, Robert William Bailey (1807-1861), Bailey still remained in control of the business, overseeing the hundreds of employees and apprentices she had during her fifty year career. She retired the same year her son died, at age eighty-two.