Baker also created posters for the American Legion and in 1939 he was hired by the Works Progress Administration to paint the mural titled “Economic Activities in the Days of the Narragansett Planters” at the Wakefield, Rhode Island post office. He drew political cartoons for Poughkeepsie's Evening Star newspaper.[3] His work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1932 Summer Olympics.[5]
In 1939, as the United States emerged from the Depression, publisher Henry Luce again hired Baker to illustrate covers, this time for Time magazine. Baker spent the rest of his career at Time and produced more than 300 illustrated covers, primarily portraits of influential figures, between 1940 and 1957.
Ernest and Ernestine Baker retired to Hendersonville, North Carolina in the early 1950s. After Ernestine’s death in 1972, Baker moved to Norton, Massachusetts, where died 3 years later at the age of 86.