George Percival Baker Explained

George Percival Baker ^[2] (1856–1951) was a textile merchant and manufacturer, collector of fabrics from India and Persia, amateur botanist, mountaineer, oarsman, and amateur photographer.^[3]

Biography

George Percival Baker's father George Baker in 1848 designed and supervised the creation of the garden at the British Embassy at Constantinople and, after completing the work,^[3] in Constantinople went into the trading business, including the export of Turkish carpets.^[4] After education at a Franciscan monastery school^[5] and then at a British school in Pera, G. P. Baker and his brother Harry were sent to England and continued their education at a private school in Knights Hill, Norwood.^[3] About five later, G. P. Baker returned to Constantinople in 1871 and went into the family business.^[5] In 1874 G. P. Baker left Constantinople to work in England for the family business. In 1884, when he was 28 years old, he married Mary Emily "Minnie" Davis.^[5] With capital from their father,^[3] he and his brother James founded in 1884 the firm G P & J Baker and purchased in 1893 the long-established printing firm of Swaisland located in Crayford, Kent.^{[6] [7]} G. P. Baker was an important collector of early Oriental fabrics and a leading expert on calico painting and printing in the East Indies.^{[8] [9] [10]}

As a mountaineer, G. P. Baker is most famous as one of a party of four who in August 1882 opened a new route on the east ridge of Dent Blanche.^[3]

In 1929 G. P. Baker and Marco Bonakis were pioneers in the use of seaplanes to transport plants.^[11] In 1933 G. P. Baker was awarded the Victoria Medal of Honour of the Royal Horticultural Society.^[12]

G. P. and Minnie Baker had five sons and two daughters. Three of the sons died in WW I.^[5]

(Araliaceae) Bakeria Seem.^[13] is named in honour of the botanist J. G. Baker of Thirsk. The plant genus Bakeria now contains no taxonomically accepted names.^[14]

References

1. Web site: Baker, George Percival (1856-1951). Global Plants, jstor.org.
2. Second Meeting, 23rd November, 1891. Election of Fellows. 1891. Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society . New Series. 13. 731.
3. Roger-Smith, H. R.. Carslake, W. B.. In Memoriam: George Percival Baker. The Alpine Journal. 1952. 391–393.
4. Web site: G and A Baker Ltd. unilever-archives.com.
5. Web site: The George Baker Family 1822-1905. levantineheritage.com.
6. Book: Eaton, Linda. Printed Textiles: British and American Cottons and Linens 1700-1850. 12. 2014. Monacelli Press. 978-1-58093-393-3.
7. Web site: G P & J Baker Crayford Collection. kravet.com Brochures Catalogs.
8. Baker, George Percival. East Indian Hand-Painted Calicoes of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, and their Influence on the Tinctorial Arts of Europe. Journal of the Royal Society of Arts. 64. 3313. 1916. 482–492.
9. Book: Baker, George Percival. Clouzot, Henri. Calico painting and printing in the the[sic] East Indies in the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries. E. Arnold. 1921.

   78 pp.

   .
10. Web site: Book Illustration, Calico Painting and Printing in the the[sic] East Indies in the XVIIth and XVIIIth Centuries, Plate 1, 1921]. Cooper Hewitt.
11. Book: MacGregor, Arthur. Naturalists in the Field: Collecting, Recording and Preserving the Natural World from the Fifteenth to the Twenty-First Century. 26 April 2018. Brill. 978-90-04-32384-1. 579.
12. Web site: Nelson, Charles. August 2011. The story of George Percival Baker: calico printer and textile merchant; mountaineer, plantsman and gardener.
13. J. Bot.. 2. 248. 1864. Seemann. Berthold.
14. Web site: Bakeria. The Plant List.