Emma Sophia Baker ( – ) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

psychologist. In 1903, she became the first person to earn a Ph.D. in philosophy from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...

, it is important to know that psychology was considered a subdiscipline of philosophy at the time. Baker was also one of the first two women to earn a Ph.D. from that institution, the other was chemist

Clara Benson Clara Cynthia Benson (1875–1964) was a Canadian chemist, the sole female founder of the American Society for Biological Chemistry (now the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB)) and one of the first two women to earn a ...

Biography

Baker was born in Milton,

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in 1856. She attended

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in Newmarket,

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, and Albert College in Belleville. She taught and served as a principal at a number of all girls' schools, including Dickenson's Seminary (now

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) in

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, and Presbyterian Ladies' College in Toronto. While earning her Ph.D. in philosophy, Baker worked under the supervision of August Kirschmann, a German-born psychologist who led the psychology laboratory at the University of Toronto. In the laboratory, Baker conducted experiments on the

aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed t ...

of colours. She published two of her experiments in the laboratory's in-house publication called the ''University of Toronto Studies Psychological Series.'' These two studies also served as her doctoral dissertation. The first study was “Experiments on the aesthetic of light and colour: On combinations of two colours", and the second was “Experiments on the aesthetic of light and colour: Spectrally pure colours in binary combinations". From 1901 until 1914, Baker worked at Mount Allison University in Sackville,

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where she started as the lady principal of the Ladies' College, and then moved up to serve as vice-principal of the institution. From 1914 until her retirement in 1928, she held a professorship in Psychology, Ethics and Economics at the Maryland College for Women in Lutherville,

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. It is important to note that a lot of educated women in the early 1900's either helped popularize science or they gave it up after they got married. Baker took it upon herself to educate and empower young women after she conducted her research on light and colors. Baker was one of the first female Canadian psychologists, and instead of becoming a housewife or playing second fiddle to a male colleague like many other educated women, she decided to make a difference and teach the next generation of young female Canadian scholars. At the end of her career, Baker returned to Toronto where she eventually died on October 26, 1943, at age 87. She was buried in

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Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Emma Sophia 1856 births 1943 deaths 20th-century Canadian psychologists People from Milton, Ontario Canadian women psychologists University of Toronto alumni Academic staff of Mount Allison University Canadian expatriates in the United States