Background
Margaret Hilbiber was born in Tacoma, Washington in 1912.
assistant illustrator manager author graphic designer
Margaret Hilbiber was born in Tacoma, Washington in 1912.
University of Pennsylvania.
At age 16 she was accepted as an architecture student at the University of Pennsylvania, one of three women in her cohort. Two years into her studies with the onset of the Great Depression, Maggie had to drop out of the program to support her family by working as an assistant advertising manager at a department store in Tacoma. During World World War II, Baylis left for Hawaii where she worked as a civilian doing graphic design work for Moore Dry Dock Company In 1941 she moved to San Francisco two weeks before the attack on Pearl Harbor and began work as an assistant advertising manager at Sunset magazine, where she worked until 1951.
The Baylis" worked together for 20 years.
The Baylis’s contributed to Western Landscape Design, House & Garden, Better Homes & Gardens, House Beautiful, and Sunset. Maggie Baylis was the main force behind the 1948 San Francisco Museum of Art Landscape Design catalog, credited with both the layout and design.
In 1971, she turned her attention to writing and illustrating a dozen books, the most well-known being House Plants for the Purple Thumb. Throughout her life Baylis was involved in community affairs
She was on the board of trustees for the Strybing Arboretum, and involved with San Francisco Beautiful, and Telegraph Hill Dwellers.
In the about the author section of her book House Plants for the Purple Thumb, Baylis described herself as a “draftsmen, delineator, bread-baker, carpenter, and house plant tender.” Baylis had liver cancer and died on December 10, 1997.