Baker, Richard Thomas (1854 - 1941)

Summary

Richard Baker was Assistant Curator of the Technological Museum, Sydney from 1888 to 1898 and Curator from c. 1898 to 1921, successor of J.H. Maiden. His principal interest was with oil-bearing plants, particularly Eucalyptus.

Details

Born Woolwich, Kent, England, 1 December 1854. Died Sydney, 14 July 1941. Educated Peterborough Training Institution, and science and art certificates from South Kensington Museum. Senior assistant-master, School Board for London 1875-79; science and art master and senior house-master, Newington College, Sydney 1880-88; assistant curator to J.H. Maiden, Technological Museum, Sydney 1888-96; in charge of the museum from 1896; curator from 1898; economic botanist 1901-22; lectured in forestry, University of Sydney 1913-24. Mueller Medal, Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science 1921, W.B. Clarke Medal, Royal Society of New South Wales 1922. Published several books, the major one being "Hardwoods of Australia and Their Economics" (1919).

Chronology

1888 - c. 1898

Career position - Assistant Curator to J.H. Maiden, Sydney Technological Museum

1897 - 1922

Career position - Member of Council, Linnean Society of New South Wales

1898

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus oreades R.T.Baker

1898

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus bridgesiana R.T.Baker

c. 1898 - c. 1921

Career position - Curator and economic botanist, Sydney Technological Museum

1900

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus intermedia R.T.Baker

1900

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus angophoroides R.T.Baker

1913

Taxonomy event - Honoured with Eucalyptus bakeri Maiden

1913 - 1924

Career position - Lecturer in Forestry, University of Sydney

1915

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus australiana R.T.Baker (= E. radiata Sieb. var. australiana Blakely (1934))

1917

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus beyeri R.T.Baker

1921 -

Career position - Foundation Councillor (Botany), Australian National Research Council

1921

Award - Mueller Medal, Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science (one of two awarded in 1921)

1922

Award - Clarke Medal of the Royal Society of New South Wales

Related entries

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

• Australian Botanists - Biographies, MS 064; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

• Richard Thomas Baker - Records, 1890 - 1941; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

Powerhouse Museum

• Richard Thomas Baker - Records, 1891 - 1940, MRS 4, 16, 202, 109, 225; Powerhouse Museum. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• Collins, David, Chemistry in 19th Australia - Select Bibliography, An exhibition of the Encyclopedia circa 2005 with assistance from Ailie Smith and Gavan McCarthy., eScholarship Research Centre (original publisher), Melbourne, 2009, https://eoas.info/exhibitions/ciab/ciab_ALL.html. Details
• McCarthy, Gavan; Smith, Ailie; Moje, Christine; Rigby, Rebecca, The Study of Australian Eucalypts, eScholarship Research Centre, 2013, http://www.eoas.info/eucalypts/index.html. Details

Books

• List of Original Publications and Papers by R.T. Baker (Sydney: W.A. Gullick, Government Printer, 1911). Details
• Baker, Richard T.; Smith, Henry G., A research on the eucalypts, especially in regard to their essential oils (Sydney: Government Printer, 1920), 471 pp. Details
• Baker, Richard T.; Smith, Henry T., A research on the eucalypts of Tasmania and their essential oils (Tasmania: Government Printer, 1912), 71 pp. Details
• Wrigley, J.; and Fagg, M., Eucalypts: a Celebration (Crows Nest Australia: Allen & Unwin, 2010), 344 pp. Details

Book Sections

• 'Baker, Richard Thomas (1854-1941)' in Australian Encyclopaedia, Chisholm, Alec H., ed., vol. 1 (Sydney: Grolier, 1965), p. 393. Details
• Bogle, Michael, 'R.T. Baker' in Design in Australia, 1880-1970 (North Ryde, New South Wales: Craftsman House, c.1998), pp. 47-48, 52. Details
• Watson, Anne, 'The legacy of a vision: from Lucien Henry to R.T. Baker' in Visions of a republic: the work of Lucien Henry, Paris, Noumea, Sydney, Stephen, Ann, ed. (Sydney: Powerhouse Publishing, 2001), pp. 108-125. Details
• Willis, J. L., 'Baker, Richard Thomas (1854-1941), botanist and museum curator' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 7: 1891 - 1939 A-Ch, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1979), pp. 154-155. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A070154b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• 'Obituary: Mr. R. T. Baker', Australian Journal of Science, 4 (1) (1941), 17-18. Details
• 'Obituary of R. T. Baker in presidential address by H. Priestley', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 76 (1943), 6. Details
• Baker, R. T., 'Note on the Cinnamomum, &c., in the Proposed Addendum (to the British Pharmacopoeia)', The Chemist and Druggist of Australasia, 14 (1899), 67-68. Details
• Baker, Richard T.; Smith, Henry G., 'On the Presence of a True Manna on a "Blue Grass", Andropogon annulatus , Forsk.', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 30 (1896), 291-308. Details
• Baker, Richard T.; Smith, Henry G., 'On the Essential Oil and the Presence of a Solid Camphor or Stearoptene in the "Sydney Peppermint" Eucalyptus piperita, Sm', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 31 (1897), 195-200. Details
• Baker, Richard T.; Smith, Henry G., 'On "Grey Gum", (Eucalyptus punctata, DC.,) particularly in Regard to its Essential Oil', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 31 (1897), 259-280. Details
• Baker, Richard T.; Smith, Henry G., 'On the "Stringybark" Trees of N.S.Wales, Especially in Regard to their Essential Olis', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 32 (1898), 104-119. Details
• Baker, Richard T.; Smith, Henry G., 'On the Darwinias of Port Jackson and their Essential Oils', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 33 (1899), 163-176. Details
• Bean, A. R., 'The Discovery and Documentation of the Eucalypts of Queensland and New South Wales, 1896-1961', Australian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter, 142 (March) (2010), 2-5. Details
• Lucas, A. M., 'A nineteenth-century exploration of phytochemistry in botanical systematics: Joseph Henry Maiden and Eucalyptus kinos', Historical Records of Australian Science, 28 (1) (2017), 18-25, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR16020. Details
• Mellor, D.P., 'Obituary: Richard Thomas Baker', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 76 (1942), 6. Details
• Pearson, Michael, 'The good oil: eucalyptus oil distilleries in Australia.', Australasian Historical Archaeology, 11 (1993), 99-107. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7329451. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/56100555. Details
• 'Baker, Richard T (1854-1941)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-638648. Details

See also

• Hall, Norman, Botanists of the Eucalypts: short biographies of people who have named eucalypts, whose names have been given to species or who have collected type material (Melbourne: CSIRO, 1978), 101 pp. Details
• Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details