Margaret Whiting Spilhaus (September 27, 1889 – July 7, 1981) was a South African author, illustrator, geographer, and historian of British descent. Born in London, she moved to South Africa with her family in 1904. She married a German merchant, Ludolph Spilhaus (1876 – 1972), in 1909 and later started her publishing career by writing and illustrating books for toddlers (e.g. South African Nursery Rhymes in 1924 and The Limber Elf in 1926).
Over time, Spilhaus gradually began focusing on older children. As part of that, she created a series of pictorial maps for educational purposes. These include Australia (c. 1927), Africa, North America (c. 1930), South America (c. 1933), and Pan Africa (c. 1943). Spilhaus died in South Africa in July of 1981; her personal archive is housed at the University of Cape Town today.
