Mary (May) Wilson Watkins Preston (August 11, 1873 – May 18, 1949) was an American illustrator of books and magazines and an impressionist painter.

After three years, and at the urging of one of her teachers, Preston's parents allowed her to return to New York and attend the Art Students League.

She then studied in Paris with James Whistler and next at the New York School of Art with William Merritt Chase.

Following the death of her first husband, Thomas Henry Watkins, Preston embarked on a career as an illustrator to support herself.

She socialized and exhibited with artists of the Ashcan School and married one of the group, James Moore Preston, in 1903.

Considered one of the top women illustrators between 1900 and 1940, Preston was one of the few female members and exhibitors of the Society of Illustrators, having been admitted March 29, 1904, after peers Florence Scovel Shinn, Elizabeth Shippen Green, Violet Oakley, and Jessie Willcox Smith.

Preston was there until 1892,[3] when one of her teachers convinced her parents to allow their "irrepressible" daughter to study art.

When asked by the editor why she brought her drawings to them, Preston said, "Because, I am a beginner and thought that this was the worst magazine I had ever seen."

[3] From "People who interest us: May Wilson Preston, Illustrator of Real Life" in The Craftsman (1910): [S]he lived courageously through years of repeated defeat, experiencing every variety of supercilious rebuff that tradition can offer fresh creative effort ... her determination to stick to her ideals has been as great as her courage.

Preston was one of the artists who effectively followed the lead of William Glackens, George Luks and Everett Shinn.

[17] The landmark Armory Show of 1913 included one of Preston's oil paintings, Girl with print.

[20] In 1920, Preston illustrated two F. Scott Fitzgerald stories for The Saturday Evening Post: Bernice Bobs Her Hair and Myra Meets His Family.

[7] Her career was essentially over after contracting a skin infection that made it difficult for her to paint and as a result of the dwindling market during the Depression.