Elizabeth Ison Baker was born to Henry Evans (1816-1890) and Euphemia Baker nee McLeish (1826-1909) in her parents house Alpha Villa, in Goldsborough (Old Dunnolly), Victoria on 28th May 1864. Baker senior 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 his eldest daughter Euphemia (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 1895 Miss E.I.Baker was entering competitions. She had a picture published in the Melbourne _Sun _Amateur Photographers Competition for women on 1 November 1895and won a gold medal at the 1895 International Photographic Exhibition and first prize at the Sydney Exhibition. 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.
Elizabeth married John Hammerton of Geelong also an amateur photographer in 1902 and continued to
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- Date written:
- 2022
- Last updated:
- 2022
