[1] He graduated from The English High School in Boston in 1901 as president of his class, and as winner of the Lawrence Prize for Drawing.

[1] He studied at the Massachusetts Normal Art School in Boston from 1901 to 1906, under Joseph DeCamp and Ernest Lee Major.

After graduating, he continued his studies in Mystic, Connecticut, with Charles Harold Davis, and Belmont, Massachusetts, with Edward H. Barnard, focusing on landscape painting.

[3] His early work consisted primarily of portraits of society women, educators and musicians, including a 1910 painting of his former teacher Ernest Lee Major, which was exhibited in Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Chicago, later joining the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

[11] Several of Baker's paintings were loaned to The White House for display in Harry S. Truman's private living quarters from May 1945 to October 1946.

[14] From 1925 to 1936, he was also an adjunct professor at the College of Fine Arts at George Washington University, teaching drawing and painting.