page_title: Maggie Baylis
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Maggie Baylis / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: Maggie Baylis in the garden
context_page_description: Margaret "Maggie" Hilbiber Baylis was an American graphic designer, illustrator, and author of gardening books.
context_section_description: During 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. While working for Sunset, she opened her own graphic design studio and hired Douglas Baylis, a landscape architect whom she later married, as her business partner. The Baylis' worked together for 20 years. The Baylis's contributed to Western Landscape Design, House & Garden, Better Homes & Gardens, House Beautiful. At House Beautiful, Baylis created a how-to series with detailed illustrations which were later copied by other magazines for the home gardener. Maggie Baylis was the main force behind the 1948 San Francisco Museum of Art Landscape Design catalog, credited with both the layout and design. When architect Gordon Drake was killed in a skiing accident, Maggie designed and her husband wrote a book entitled California Houses of Gordon Drake. In 1971, she turned her attention to writing and illustrating a dozen books, the most well-known being House Plants for the Purple Thumb. The book capitalized on a nationwide interest in houseplants, teaching new growers easily digestible information on the full range of care needed for success. 
  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." Her career centered on creating tools for the public to create large and small changes to their built environments.
  Baylis died of liver cancer on December 10, 1997.
caption: Maggie Baylis in the garden
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