Baum studied with William T. Trego in North Wales, near New Hope, Pennsylvania, before entering the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1905 for a year of study under Thomas Anshutz. From 1920 to 1942 Baum was art editor of the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, and edited the weekly Sellerville Herald. In this same period he did illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman. Baum established an art school in Allentown, Pennsylvania which in 1952 became associated with the Allentown Art Museum; and he founded served as director of the Museum. He summered in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and so was also active in the Berkshire (Massachusetts) Art Association.
Baum paintings were landscapes of the Perkiomen, Lehigh and North Pennsylvania regions and of New England; and coastal scenes of Gloucester and New Bedford in Massachusetts, and of Maine. In addition, he did portraits in full, and miniatures; his work also includes lithographs and pen and ink sketches.
