Jessie Wilcox Smith was born in Philadelphia in 1863. After Smith studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, under Thomas Eakins, and the Drexel Institute under Howard Pyle, she became a full-time illustrator. Specializing in drawing children, she illustrated A Child's Garden of Verses (1905), The Water Babies (1905), Alice in Wonderland (1915), Little Women (1915) and Heidi (1922).

Smith also had her work published in Colliers Magazine, Scribner's, Harper's Magazine, The Century Magazine, Ladies' Home Journal, and Good Housekeeping.

Jessie Wilcox Smith died in 1935.