Richard Allan Baker was the first Historian of the United States Senate

Historian of the United States Senate

The Historian of the United States Senate heads the United States Senate Historical Office, which was created in 1975 to record and preserve historical information about the United States Senate. The current Historian of the Senate is Donald A...

, serving through August 2009. He directed the United States Senate Historical Office from the time of its creation in 1975.

He writes a weekly column on Senate history for a Washington newspaper and is currently preparing a history of Senate rules and customs.

Education

Baker graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst

University of Massachusetts Amherst

The University of Massachusetts Amherst is a public research and land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States and the flagship of the University of Massachusetts system...

, and received masters degrees from Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 and Michigan State University

Michigan State University

Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...

. He also obtained a Ph.D. in history from the University of Maryland, College Park

University of Maryland, College Park

The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...

.

Historical Minutes

During the weekly luncheon meetings of the Democratic Caucus of the United States Senate

Democratic Caucus of the United States Senate

The Senate Democratic Caucus is the formal organization of the current 51 Democratic Senators in the United States Senate. In the 112th Congress, the Democratic Caucus additionally includes two independent senators who formally caucus with the Democrats for the purpose of committee assignments...

, Baker opened up with a brief http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/history/b_three_sections_with_teasers/essays.htm historical anecdote or minute. These short essays were wide-ranging in topic and highlight recurring themes

Theme (literature)

A theme is a broad, message, or moral of a story. The message may be about life, society, or human nature. Themes often explore timeless and universal ideas and are almost always implied rather than stated explicitly. Along with plot, character,...

 in the Senate's institutional development. This program, at the request of Minority Leader Reid, was discontinued in the 109th Congress, in order to make the meetings more efficient.

Authorship

• "Conservation Politics: The Senate Career of Clinton P. Anderson" (1985)
• "The Senate of the United States: A Bicentennial History" (1988)
• "First Among Equals: Outstanding Senate Leaders of the Twentieth Century" (1991) (coeditor)
• "200 Notable Days: Senate Stories 1787 to 2002" (2006) http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/senate/notabledays/index.html

External links

• Saving Senate History, via pbs.org November 25, 2002
• Senate Historian Reflects on 34 Years of Unusual Queries, via New York Times August 8, 2009