Walter Emerson Baum (December 14, 1884 – July 12, 1956) was an American artist and educator active in the Bucks and Lehigh County areas of Pennsylvania in the United States. In addition to being a prolific painter, Baum was also responsible for the founding of the Baum School of Art and the Allentown Art Museum. Early life and education Walter Emerson Baum was born in Sellersville, Pennsylvania and is one of the few Pennsylvania impressionist artists from Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He studied with William B. T. Trego from 1904–1909, taking lessons at Trego's home in North Wales, Pennsylvania, about 15 miles south of his native Sellersville. Baum attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1905 and 1906, studying with Thomas Pollock Anshutz, Hugh H. Breckenridge, William Merritt Chase, and Cecilia Beaux. Faced with the responsibilities of a wife and four children, Marian, Ruth, Robert and Edgar, Baum took odd jobs to support his family. He worked in the family's barbershop, and worked as a photographer for The Poultry Item, a magazine which focused on chickens, ducks and geese. He also wrote for the local newspaper, the Sellersville Herald, and was made an editor in 1921 (he wrote columns for the paper until 1942). As his paintings became better known, he taught art classes at his home in Sellersville and at the local high school. Career Baum was an active art instructor in the Allentown area from 1926 to 1956, where his students included John E. Berninger, Karl Buesgen, Joseph Gehringer, Walter Mattern, and Melville Stark. "The Baum Circle" refers to the artists either taught by, associated with, or directly influenced by Baum. In October 2006, the David E. Rodale Gallery at the Baum School of Art in Allentown, Pennsylvania held an exhibition celebrating the work of this group. Writer and illustrator Baum worked as a columnist for the Sellersville Herald. In 1921, he was promoted to editor of the paper, where he worked until 1942. At the Herald, Baum wrote a weekly column in which he discussed the history, culture and ideals of his home town. In 1938, Baum wrote Two Hundred Years (published by the Sellersville Herald, Sellersville Pennsylvania), a book documenting the history of the Pennsylvania Germans in the Sellersville area. Like his contemporaries N.C. Wyeth and Norman Rockwell, whose works graced the covers of The Saturday Evening Post for years, Baum also became involved in illustration.