BAKER, Lillian Grace Barrington

1883 - 1978

Lillian Grace Barrington Baker was born at Kingston, Jamaica on 20 October 1883, daughter of Robert Barrington-Baker (9 December 1947-24 January 1916), a Lt. Col. in the army, and his wife Susanna Mary née Middleton (1857-), who married at Woolwich, London in 1879. Lillian spent her childhood in the West Indies, where her father was stationed with the British army. She studied at an art school for three years also studied art and languages in France and Germany and, speaking five languages, set up an art studio in Kensington, London. In 1911, a 27-year-old, living at Hill House, Shotley, Suffolk with her parents, 63-year-old Robert and 53-year-old Susan, with a younger sister Enid Winifred 24. A member of the Ipswich Fine Art Club 1910-1915, exhibiting in 1911 from Hill House, Shotley an oil, 'Patience, daughter of Rev. J.F.A. Hervey' and three others 'Margaret, daughter of Rev. J.F.A. Hervey', 'C.J.C. Street, Esq.' and a design for a bookplate. Lillian worked for the British Intelligence Corps during the First World War, being involved in the censorship department activities in London, and did post-war work in Paris with American Headquarters where she met an American serviceman, Edward Tilghman Paca (1877-1972). She emigrated to the United States of America where at Philadelphia in 1920, she married Paca and in 1930, a 46-year-old, living at Englewood, Arapahoe, Colorado, United States with her husband and where she was still living in 1940 with her husband and sons Robert Tilghman Paca, born 1922, Francis Barrington Paca, born 1923 and Richard Carmichael Paca (1926-1945). At Pacific Grove during the Second World War, she sketched seals on Seal Rock and put them in her first, privately printed book, 'Sea Lions and Seals' with a second book 'Pelican Personalities'. In the late 1950s, the Smithsonian Institution requested her bird drawings for an exhibition and in 1953, she published 'An Introduction to Western Birds' which she illustrated and was also the author of several other books and articles. Lillian Grace Paca, of Pacific Grove, author, poet, newspaperwoman and one of the nation’s foremost bird artists died at Pacific Grove, Monterey, California on 14 January 1978.

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Works by This Artist