author
William Henry Baker
b. 1869
Best known for a richly detailed reference book on clothing and etiquette, this early-20th-century compiler turned practical knowledge into something surprisingly browsable. His work on men’s dress gives a vivid glimpse of how people once thought about style, uniforms, and social formality.
1 Audiobook
A dictionary of men's wear
by William Henry Baker
About the author
William Henry Baker was an American author and compiler best remembered for A Dictionary of Men’s Wear, a substantial reference work first published in the early 1900s. Library and public-domain catalog records identify him as born in 1869, and his surviving books suggest a strong interest in printing, illustration, and the language of dress.
Among the works linked to him are Better Than Half-Tones: How Do You Know? and A Dictionary of Men’s Wear. The latter, now preserved by the Library of Congress, is a wide-ranging guide to fabrics, garments, uniforms, and correct dress, and it remains the clearest window into Baker’s writing: practical, specific, and aimed at readers who wanted dependable information rather than literary flourish.
Little biographical detail appears to be widely confirmed online beyond his authorship and birth year, so his books do most of the talking for him. Even so, they capture a distinctive corner of everyday history, showing how closely clothing, trade knowledge, and social customs were connected in his era.