Royal Bailey Farnum (11 June 1884 – 28 August 1967) was an American art educator who served in administrative roles in various public and private educational institutions in Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and Rhode Island during the first half of the 20th century.

Farnum was initially hired to be the Superintendent of the Department of Applied Arts at the Rochester Athenæum and Mechanics Institute in 1918, but rose to the presidency the next year, serving until 1921.

[3] Farnum, faced with state-mandated raises for secondary school teachers and enrollment swollen with veterans of World War I, embarked on a fund-raising campaign to boost the compensation of the Institute's faculty.

In 1929, he took a job as Educational Director for the Rhode Island School of Design and was subsequently promoted to Executive Vice President in 1937.

Farnum was bestowed with an honorary Art D. from Brown University in 1935 and received the Michael Friedsam Medal in 1942.