[2] After a short time as an assistant biologist at the Rhode Island Agricultural Experiment Station in 1897-98, Barlow assumed a faculty position teaching biology at Fairmount College in Wichita, Kansas, from 1898 to 1901.

Barlow returned to Kingston, Rhode Island, to stay in 1902 when he accepted the positions of Professor of Zoology and chairman of the Department of Zoology at the Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts.

[3] He was a respected entomologist who had built up the entomological collections of the college and was known to his students as "Buggy Barlow".

[4] In 1930, he was named Vice-President and Dean of Men near the end of the presidency of Howard Edwards.

In 1931, he added the title of Dean of the School of Science and Business to his portfolio.