Ira Osborn Baker was an engineering professor at the University of Illinois and author.
[5] A contemporary review in the New York Engineering and Building Record described the Treatise as a broad and satisfactory treatment of the subject, with a few areas worthy of improvement.
[6] The reviewer called Baker's "almost unqualified approval of dolomites" questionable, noting that New York engineers found local sources of such material substandard.
[6] The reviewer observed an omission of a 1889 expert Report of the New York Aqueduct Commission, and the lack of a chapter on inspection, given the likelihood that the engineering students that the book was originally aimed at would likely find themselves doing masonry inspection after graduation.
[6] Conversely, the book's index, and its various tables and diagrams were described as "good"; with theoretical problems "simply and clearly stated" and typical specifications "well selected".