Mary Augusta Mullikin (born 1874 in Ohio; died 1964) was an American painter who spent almost 30 years in China from 1920 to the end of World War II.
She also contributed to the National Geographic Magazine a number of articles accompanied by her drawings, including "China's Great Wall of Sculpture" in the March 1938 National Geographic (pp 313–348) on the earliest Buddhist sculptures in what were known as the Yun Kang caves, and "Tài Shan, Sacred Mountain of the East" in June 1945.
In July 1937 the Japanese occupation began, and Mullikin and the Lowries were trapped in Tianjin until the end of World War II.
Turned out of her home, Mullikin survived by staying with Swiss friends, and by painting pictures of Chinese ancestors from old photographs, and by selling property.
She sold a number of her paintings to members of the International community located in Tianjin, between 1920 and the start of World War II.
Her arrival was chronicled by an article in the Christian Science Monitor of August 29, 1949, together with a staff photo which made the mistake of spelling her last name “Millikin”.