REPORT OP EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE lix 



part of Pennsylvania. He was afterward editor of topographic 

 maps. While these were his principal routine duties, they occupied 

 only a portion of his time. He was from time to time entrusted 

 with various special researches, usually of a literary or bibliographic 

 character, for the purpose of aiding the director in the preparation 

 of special reports and other documents. He represented the Geo- 

 logical Survey on the Board on Geographic Names, and for more 

 than ten years was the secretary of that board, having charge of its 

 files and collating the recorded usage of most of the names submitted 

 to the board for decision. He was also the editor of its bulletins. 



When a commission was appointed by our government to in- 

 vestigate the matter of the Venezuelan boundary, Mr. Baker was 

 employed as geographic expert, taking leave of absence from the 

 Survey for that purpose. He prepared a compendious report, in- 

 cluding an exhaustive bibliography of the maps bearing on the 

 boundary dispute. Afterward, when arrangement was made for 

 arbitration, he was employed by the counsel for Venezuela, and 

 spent two years on the preparation of the case. 



Mr. Baker was member of a number of scientific societies, from 

 which he accepted duties that occupied much of his leisure. For 

 several years he was secretary of the Philosophical Society of Wash- 

 ington and editor of its Bulletin ; and afterward he was its presi- 

 dent. He was an officer of the Geographic Society from its organ- 

 ization, and also of the Historical Society. When the scientific 

 societies of Washington became affiliated through the constitution of 

 a joint commission, he was chosen its secretary, and in that capacity 

 began the preparation of the joint directory of scientific societies, 

 which he continued from year to year. In the same connection he 

 was made secretary of the local committee for the entertainment of 

 the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1891. 

 When the joint commission was succeeded by the Washington 

 Academy of Sciences, in 1898, Mr. Baker was chosen not only to 

 the Academy but to its board of managers, and he afterward be- 

 came the editor of its Proceedings. 



Mr. Baker in 1874 married Sarah Eldred, who died in 1897. In 

 1899 he married Marion Una Strong, who, with two children, sur- 

 vives him. His death occurred December 12, 1903. 



