His parents were Adam C. Baker, an English sea captain, and Luka Pruvia, daughter of an early Tahitian missionary to Hawaii.

According to Walter M. Gibson, "[t]he artist has copied closely the fine physique of [Robert] Hoapili [Baker]...and it presents a noble illustration and a correct type of superior Hawaiian manhood".

[7] The Royal Governorship of Hawaii Island held originally by his wife Ululani had been abolished by the legislature after the Bayonet Constitution.

During his travels, he met and conversed with many indigenous leaders and colonial government officials including Tongan King George Tupou II, Queen Makea Takau Ariki of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands.

[10][11] Historian Lorenz Gonschor noted that Baker's voyage was "far more than a tourist venture" and "was an act of quasi-diplomacy in the name of the then US-occupied Hawaiian Kingdom".

He established Puʻu ʻŌʻō Ranch at Piʻihonua and at one time, raised six hundred head of cattle including some longhorns.