Euphemia Eleanor Baker aka 'Effie’, was born in Goldsborough, Victoria in 1880, the daughter of miner John Baker (1855-1915)and wife Margaret nee Ball. John was a son of renowned former Sea Captain, Henry Evans Baker (1816-1890)turned multi-talented mining investor, inventor and later astronomer and telescope maker. From 1884-1890 Captain Baker was in charge of the Mount Pleasant private observatory he had founded with Ballarat businessman James Oddie. Both Effie Baker’s grandparents with whom she lived from 1886, and her father had died by 1915. John Baker was not wealthy but Effie received a good education including art and music training with family support. Her paternal aunts Euphemia and Elizabeth Ison Baker (q.v.) were particularly supportive. Ison Baker gifted Effie a camera in the 1890s. Effie was proficient enough by 1898 to send holiday albums to her parents.
When Aunt Elizabeth married in 1902 newspaper reports mentioned that her niece Effie who had been in training for sometime and was to take over. This aspect of Effie Baker’s career is little known but if correct, exposure to gazing at the heavens may have influenced her later spiritual interest in the Bahá'í faith. If Effie Baker managed the observatory it would only have been until 1909 when she moved to Black Rock where Aunt Euphemia had been appointed headmistress and had built a cottage.
Effie Baker had trained as an artist at Ballarat East art school and in Black Rock applied her skills to earn a living. She produced wooden relief and three dimensional children’s toys based on Australian animals,including Noah’s Ark with Aboriginal Aboriginal Moses. Some toy sets were arranged in racks which folded up to be easily posted. Effie made elaborate doll’s houses which received considerable attention in the press, greeting cards, flower paintings and photographs including a booklet Wildflowers of Australia using fine four reproductions of her own hand coloured boatnical photographs. The booklet went through several editions 1914,1915,1921 and 1922.
Effie Baker became involved with the Bahá'í faith in Australia in 1922 and helped in its establishment in this country. She travelled through Iran and Iraq taking the photographs of sites of significance to the faith to illustrate The Dawn-Breakers: Nabil’s Narrative of the Early Days of the Baha’i Revelation, Shoghi Effendi’s translation of _historical account of the early years of the Babi and Baha’i Faith. The original was written in the late 1800s by Nabil-i-Azam, a Persian follower of the Bab and Baha’u’llah, and translated by Shoghi Effendi in the early 1930s.
Effie Baker returned to Australia in 1936 living for awhile in Goldsborough and from 1963 in Sydney at the Bahai headquarters. Her photography had ceased by the late 1940s. The details of her life as a Bahai have been documented by Australian biographer Graham Hassall.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1999
- Last updated:
- 2022
