Howard Henry Baker Jr. (November 15, 1925 – June 26, 2014) was an American politician, diplomat and photographer who served as a United States Senator from Tennessee from 1967 to 1985.

Known in Washington, D.C., as the "Great Conciliator", Baker was often regarded as one of the most successful senators in terms of brokering compromises, enacting legislation, and maintaining civility.

For example, he had a lead role in the fashioning and passing of the Clean Air Act of 1970 with Democratic senator Edmund Muskie.

[8] Baker won the general election, capitalizing on Clement's failure to energize the Democratic base, especially organized labor.

Baker voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 and the nomination of Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court of the United States.

In 1969, he was already a candidate for the Minority Leadership position that opened up with the death of his father-in-law, Everett Dirksen, but Baker was defeated 24–19 by Hugh Scott.

President Richard Nixon asked Baker in 1971 to fill one of the two empty seats on the Supreme Court of the United States.

"[17] Watergate reporter Bob Woodward wrote that then "both the majority Democrats and minority Republicans agreed to share all information."

[22] Baker's support of the 1978 Panama Canal Treaties was overwhelmingly unpopular, especially among Republicans,[2][23] and it was a factor in Reagan's choosing Bush instead as his running mate.

[25] In October 1983, Baker voted in favor of the bill establishing Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday.

Many saw that as a move by Reagan to mend relations with the Senate, which had deteriorated somewhat under the previous chief of staff, Donald Regan.

[30] During Baker's tenure, Japan supported the US-led Iraq War and implemented an embargo on American beef due to a BSE outbreak.

Upon the building's completion in 2008, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor assisted in the facility's dedication.

His photographs have often been exhibited and were published in National Geographic, Life, and in the books Howard Baker's Washington (1982), Big South Fork Country (1993), and Scott's Gulf: The Bridgestone/Firestone Centennial Wilderness (2000).

In 1993, he received the International Award of the American Society of Photographers, and in 1994, he was elected into the Hall of Fame of the Photo Marketing Association.