Scholia has a profile forRichard Thomas Baker(Q7329451).

Richard Thomas Baker (1 December 1854 – 14 July 1941) was an Australian economicbotanist, museum curator and educator.

Baker was born inWoolwich,England, son of Richard Thomas Baker, a blacksmith, and his wife Sarah, née Colkett. The boy was educated at Woolwich National School and Peterborough Training Institution, later gaining science and art certificates fromSouth Kensington Museum.

He was engaged as a senior assistant-master by the School Board for London in 1875 but resigned in July 1879 to emigrate to Australia.^[1]

Baker arrived in Australia in September 1879 and joined the staff ofNewington College,Sydney, as science and art master in June 1880.

On 15 January 1888 Baker was appointed assistant curator toJoseph Henry Maiden at theTechnological Museum, and in 1901 succeeded Maiden as curator and economic botanist. In 1902 Baker published an important work,A Research on the Eucalypts especially in regard to theiressential oils, prepared in collaboration withHenry George Smith, second and enlarged edition, 1920.^[1]

Baker published a small book,Building and Ornamental Stones of New South Wales (1908), and, again in collaboration with Henry Smith, another valuable piece of research,A Research on the Pines of Australia (1910). In 1913Cabinet Timbers of Australia appeared, and in 1915 two more booksBuilding and Ornamental Stones of Australia, andAustralian Flora in Applied Art. An important work,The Hardwoods of Australia and their Economics, was published with many illustrations in 1919. Baker retired from the Technological Museum on 30 June 1921. With H. G. Smith he publishedWoodfibres of Some Australian Timbers (1924).

Baker was lecturer on forestry at theUniversity of Sydney 1913–1925, was a member of the Royal and Linnean Societies of New South Wales, and published over 100 papers in their journals. He was a member of the council of theLinnean Society 1897–1922.

Baker was awarded theMueller Medal by theAustralian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science in 1921,^[2] and theClarke Medal of theRoyal Society of New South Wales in 1922. He collected both old and modern china and in 1938 joined theRoyal Australian Historical Society. Baker died atCheltenham, New South Wales on 14 July 1941 and was buried inRookwood Cemetery.^[1]

• Richard Thomas Baker (1915),The Australian flora in applied art. Part I, The waratah, Sydney:Powerhouse Museum,Wikidata Q108332528
• Richard T. Baker (1919),The Hardwoods of Australia and their Economics,Government of New South Wales,Wikidata Q108332690
• Richard T. Baker (1915),Building and Ornamental Stones of Australia,Government of New South Wales,Wikidata Q108332778
• Baker, Richard Thomas (1913),Cabinet timbers of Australia, Sydney: W.A. Gullick, Govt. Printer,doi:10.5962/BHL.TITLE.17315,OL 7206292M,Wikidata Q51424204
• Richard T. Baker;Henry G. Smith (1924),Woodfibres of some Australian timbers : investigated in reference to their prospective value for paper-pulp production,Government of New South Wales,Wikidata Q108333008
• Richard T. Baker;Henry G. Smith (1910),A research on the pines of Australia,Wikidata Q108333132

Taxa named by Richard Thomas Baker

• Serle, Percival (1949)."Baker, Robert Thomas".Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney:Angus & Robertson.

• 1854 births
• 1941 deaths
• 20th-century Australian botanists
• Staff of Newington College
• 19th-century Australian botanists
• British emigrants to the Colony of New South Wales
• Colony of New South Wales people

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