Elizabeth Ison Baker was born in 1898 to John Baker whose father Captain Henry Evans Baker was a successful mining investor turned meteorologist who managed the Ballarat Observatory at Mount Pleasant, from 1886-1890 and constructed its 26” Newtonian telescope known as Baker Great Equatorial Telescope. He was assisted in the evenings by Euphemia Baker(q.v.)a teacher,who took over on his death in 1890. Elizabeth went to school in Inkerman,and as a teenager accompanied Euphemia on her nightly shifts at the Observatory and developed her own skills at astronomical and especially lunar photography. By 1894 Miss E.I.Baker was winning prizes in Ballarat Amateur Photographic Association competitions and had a picture published in the Melbourne Sun 'Amateur Photographers Competition for women’ on 1 November. The _Ballarat Star _of 13 July noted Miss E Ison Baker was showing photographs of phases of the moon and the issue of 16 July 1894 reported that she had won the quarter -plate camera prize for the best print from an untouched negative. Her tehnical aptitude seems clear.That year Baker also a gold medal at the 1895 International Photographic Exhibition and first prize at the Sydney Exhibition. Her tableau 'The Novice’ was reproduced in the newspapers. By 1896 Elizabeth was in charge of the Baker Observatory and undertook complex observations for P.Baracchi the acting Government astronomer earning her a profile, 'Valuable Scientific Work. Miss Ison Baker’s Successful Researches’ in the Ballarat Star 9 July 1896, p.1. She received an award from the Royal Geographical Society for a photograph of the moon made using her late father’s telescope.By 1898 she was on the committee of the Ballarat Amateur Photographic Association.
In 1902 Elizabeth Baker married John Hammerton of Geelong also an amateur photographer and continued to be active in the local Camera Club until her premature death in 1908. Her death was noted in the Australian Photo-Review. No original prints by this quite remarkable young woman have been located. There is some confusion over Elizabeth Ison Baker as Graham Hassall, biographer of Effie Baker as the first Australian woman to embrace the Bahá’í Faith, has Euphemia and Elizabeth the daughters of John Baker and Elizabeth’s birth in 1898 which precludes her being Miss E I Baker exhibiting photographs by 1894.
- Writers:
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- Date written:
- 2022
- Last updated:
- 2022
