May Theilgaard Watts

Education and early career Theilgard began her teaching career in 1911, at the age of 18, as a public school teacher. She taught at several locations in northeastern Illinois between 1911 and 1924: Midlothian, Arlington Heights, Wilmette, and her alma mater in Chicago, Lake View High School. Watts has credited Cowles as a great inspiration in her later works. Jensen, Watts, and others worked to preserve the natural beauty of Ravinia's ravine landscape and advocated for the use of native plants in garden design.

In 1939 Watts began working as a part-time teacher at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois; she was hired as a full-time staff naturalist in 1942. and rapid action needed to be taken. She was honored at the 1971 dedication ceremony for the Illinois Prairie Path.

Awards Watts has been honored with numerous awards:

Death and legacy May Theilgaard Watts died at the age of 82 on August 20, 1975, in Naperville, Illinois.

The May T. Watts Nature Park in Highland Park, May Watts Pond, May Watts Elementary School in Naperville, and the May T. Watts Reading Garden (dedicated in 1963) at The Morton Arboretum are named in her honor.

Partial bibliography Tree Finder: A Pocket Manual for Identification of Trees by Their Leaves (Naperville, Ill.: Nature Study Guild, 1939). Flower Finder: A Guide to Identification of Spring Wild Flowers and Flower Families (Naperville, Ill.: Nature Study Guild, 1955). Reading the Landscape: An Adventure in Ecology (New York: Macmillan, 1957). Reading the landscape of Europe (New York: Harper & Row, 1971). (published in Britain as "The Countryside Around You"; London: Cassel, 1973) Reading the Landscape of America (New York: Macmillan, 1975). (updated edition of Reading the Landscape: An Adventure in Ecology)