Oliver Edwin Baker
Encyclopedia
Oliver Edwin Baker was an American economic geographer
Economic geography
Economic geography is the study of the location, distribution and spatial organization of economic activities across the world. The subject matter investigated is strongly influenced by the researcher's methodological approach. Neoclassical location theorists, following in the tradition of Alfred...

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Education and early career

Baker was born in Tiffin, Ohio
Tiffin, Ohio
Tiffin is a city in and the county seat of Seneca County, Ohio, United States. The population was 18,135 at the 2000 census. The National Arbor Day Foundation has designated Tiffin as a Tree City USA....

. His father, Edwin Baker, was a merchant, and his mother, Martha Ranney Thomas, had been a schoolteacher. His health in his early life was so poor that he did not begin school until the age of 12, before which time he was taught by his mother. After graduating public school he went on to Heidelberg College
Heidelberg College
Heidelberg University is a private liberal arts college located in the city of Tiffin, Ohio in the U.S. state of Ohio. Founded in 1850, it was known as Heidelberg College until 1889 and from 1926 to 2009.- History :...

. He graduated with a B.S. degree in history and mathematics at the age of 19 in 1903, and took an M.S. degree in philosophy and sociology a year later. The next year he went on to Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

, receiving an M.A. in political science in 1905. He studied forestry at Yale University School of Forestry
Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
The Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies is one of the graduate professional schools of Yale University. Founded to train foresters, it now trains leaders and creates new knowledge that will sustain and restore the health of the biosphere and the well-being of its people...

 from 1907 to 1908, and later did graduate work at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...

 in agriculture. From 1908 to 1912 he worked with the University of Wisconsin–Madison's Agricultural Experiment Station. Baker co-authored a bulletin for the Experiment Station, which studied the climate of Wisconsin and its effects on agriculture, published in 1912. From 1910 to 1912 he also worked with the Wisconsin Soil Survey during the summers.

By 1912 he took a job with the United States Department of Agriculture
United States Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive department responsible for developing and executing U.S. federal government policy on farming, agriculture, and food...

, where he would stay for the next thirty years. Baker's work was noticed rather quickly, in part because of his contributions to the Yearbooks from 1915 to 1938, several of which he edited. For the first eighteen years at the USDA he was devoted to studying the geographical aspects of land use. One of his first works, co-authoring Geography of the World's Agriculture (1917) with Vernor Clifford Finch, led him to even wider recognition. Shortly after its publication, Baker returned to the University of Wisconsin–Madison for further graduate study, in economics, and earned his Ph.D. in 1921 with a dissertation on land utilization. While there, Baker had been influenced by Henry Charles Taylor
Henry Charles Taylor
Henry Charles Taylor was an American agricultural economist. As an early pioneer in the field, he has been called the "father of agricultural economics" in the United States. Taylor established the first university department dedicated to agricultural economics in the United States during his...

 and Richard T. Ely
Richard T. Ely
Richard Theodore Ely was an American economist, author, and leader of the Progressive movement who called for more government intervention in order to reform what they perceived as the injustices of capitalism, especially regarding factory conditions, compulsory education, child labor, and labor...

, two notable economists, to shift his work more toward the economic aspect of geography and agriculture. In 1922 he joined the USDA's new Bureau of Agricultural Economics, headed by Henry C. Taylor. With the success of the Geography of the World's Agriculture, he instigated work on the Atlas of American Agriculture, on which he himself was planner and editor. The massive work was released in six parts between 1918 and 1936.

Baker acted as a part-time professor at Clark University
Clark University
Clark University is a private research university and liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts.Founded in 1887, it is the oldest educational institution founded as an all-graduate university. Clark now also educates undergraduates...

 from 1923 to 1927, and later gave several series of lectures at other universities. With the appearance of the journal Economic Geography
Economic Geography (journal)
Economic Geography is a peer-reviewed academic journal published quarterly by Clark University since 1925....

, Baker became associate editor, and later a contributor of a notable series of articles on regional agricultural geography of North America. His interest in farm populations started around 1920, however it was during the 1930s that this field became a major focus of the USDA. Baker was particularly interested in the migration of rural youths into urban areas. Even into his later years, populations problems occupied much of his research and energies. Baker recognized that only a minority of the world's population lived under decent living conditions. He turned his attention to improving standards for American farmers. He hoped to achieve this by raising the level of appreciation for farmers and their contributions within the United States, and studying recent trends to aid in planning and forecasting potential problems. He also tried to encourage Americans to have larger families in order to ensure successful future generations in the country.

Baker had been critical of many aspects of urban life, and collaborated with Ralph Borsodi
Ralph Borsodi
Ralph Borsodi was an agrarian theorist and practical experimenter interested in ways of living useful to the modern family desiring greater self-reliance...

 on Agriculture in Modern Life (1939), advocating a return to rural living. He himself however suggested more of a "rurban" lifestyle, which combined aspects of both urban and rural life. He married in 1925 to Alice Hargrave Crew. They had four children together- Helen, Sabra, Edwin, and Mildred- and raised them in then-suburban College Park, Maryland with five acres where they were able to raise chicken and cows and have a garden. He later bought a large farm near New Market, Virginia where he could take up his interest in soil conservation.

In 1931 he was elected president of the Association of American Geographers
Association of American Geographers
The Association of American Geographers is a non-profit scientific and educational society founded in 1904 and aimed at advancing the understanding, study, and importance of geography and related fields...

, and received honorary doctorates from Heidelberg College in Ohio and the University of Göttingen
Georg-August University of Göttingen
The University of Göttingen , known informally as Georgia Augusta, is a university in the city of Göttingen, Germany.Founded in 1734 by King George II of Great Britain and the Elector of Hanover, it opened for classes in 1737. The University of Göttingen soon grew in size and popularity...

 in Germany.

Career at College Park, Maryland

Baker left Washington D.C. for the University of Maryland, College Park
University of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...

 in 1942, accepting an invitation to establish a Department of Geography there. Baker assembled the Department's faculty himself and attracted many students, as well as promoted many research projects. He retired from his position in July 1949 in order to devote himself to completing his various research projects. His main work at the time was the Atlas of World Resources, which was being created by the USDA and the Bureau of Mines
United States Bureau of Mines
For most of the 20th century, the U.S. Bureau of Mines was the primary United States Government agency conducting scientific research and disseminating information on the extraction, processing, use, and conservation of mineral resources.- Summary :...

, but also initiated the China Atlas, continuing a long interest of his in China. However, neither of these works were completed by the time of his death. Baker had always been highly dedicated to teaching and gave his time generously to students and visitors.

Having suffered from health problems his entire life, he died in his home in College Park, Maryland
College Park, Maryland
College Park is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, USA. The population was 30,413 at the 2010 census. It is best known as the home of the University of Maryland, College Park, and since 1994 the city has also been home to the "Archives II" facility of the U.S...

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