Whitney S. Bagnall
 

Confronted by this meaty curriculum coupled
wiUi Dv\'ight's insistence on regular attendance and
competition in moot courts, George Augustus
Baker entered Columbia Law School equipped to
record the words of his teacher. In Baker's class, a
litde more than half the students held undergrad¬
uate degrees. Baker himself had graduated from
the College of die City of New York, as had eleven
others; many classmates came from Columbia
College or Yale, others from as far as Keiiyon
College, the University of Louisiana, and the
University of Heidelberg, F. J. Sypher's article in
this issue provides an accurate picture of Law
School life during Dwight's era. In one regard,
Baker managed to distinguish himself from his
classmates, but it was not for his academic record.
Although Baker completed the two-year course
and three days of examinations creditably to grad¬
uate in May 1871 with a class that then numbered
99 members. Baker is the only student in his class
whose notebooks reside in the Columbia Law
Librar)'. For anyone interested in the histor)' of
legal education, the Dwight method of legal
instruction, or the histor)' of Columbia Law School,
Baker's four surviving notebooks provide solid doc¬
umentation on the teaching of American law dur¬
ing the nineteenth century.

For recording Dwight's lectures, Baker pur¬
chased bound notebooks with lined, pre-num-
bered pages and ruled margins. This st)'le of note¬
book, measuring roughly 8" x 10", was a fairly typi¬
cal choice of law students. It remained popular for
a long time, perhaps for its durability. Baker's note¬
books are excellent examples of style and penman¬
ship. In addition to underscoring chapter tides and
subdivisions in red ink, Baker used red ink lo
embellish each tide page. Handsomely drawn in
red and blue, the tide page of volume 1 reads:
 

"Columbia College Law Lectures, Delivered to the
Junior Class of Columbia College Law School, by
Prof Theo. W. Dwight. LL.D. During the Junior
year of 1869-70. Vol, I. The Property of George
Baker." The artistic talent in his background came
through after all.

Baker has not dated individual lectures, choos¬
ing instead to number them consecutively. The first
volume, devoted to municipal law and the rights of
persons, contains seventy-nine lectures. Lectures
continue in volume II, the law of personal proper¬
ty, volume III, the law of real propert)', and volume
rV, equityjiuisprudence. Baker created a table of
contents in each volume for ease of reference. For
anyone studying Dwight's selection and organiza¬
tion of material, tiiese four notebooks are of fun¬
damental importance.

Upon graduation from the Law School, Baker
.set up practice in New York. It was not long, how¬
ever, before his reputation as a lav\')'er was eclipsed
by his fame as an artist of another sort. Baker began
to write poetry and stories about fashionable New
York society, perhaps drawing inspiration from the
lives of those whose portraits his father was paint¬
ing. His first volume of poetry. Point Lace and
Diamonds, appeared in 1875. This was quickly fol¬
lowed in 1876 by Bad Habits of Good Society. Baker
also contributed poems and articles to Scribner's
and The Galaxy, two popular monthly magazines.
One reviewer of Baker's collection of short stories,
Mrs. Hephaestus and Other Stories, wrote that "Mr
Baker exhibits some of the best qualities of the
light and amusing stor)' teller," The narrator in
Mrs. Hephaestus styles himself "an attorney and
counsellor-at-law, a solicitor in bankruptcy and a
proctor in admiralty." There is no evidence that
Baker ever donated his literary publications to
enliven reading material in the Law Library!
 

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