Emma Sophia Baker

Emma Sophia Baker ( – ) was a Canadian psychologist.

Biography Baker was born in Milton, Canada West in 1856.

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 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". Many 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 London, Ontario.