Ding Darling

Jay Norwood Darling, better known as Ding Darling, was an American cartoonist who won two Pulitzer Prizes. He was an important figure in the 20th century conservation movement and founded the National Wildlife Federation. 

Darling was born on October 21, 1876 in Norwood, Michigan, where his parents, Clara R. (Woolson) and Marcellus Warner Darling, had recently moved so that Marcellus could begin work as a minister. In 1886, the family moved to Sioux City, Iowa, where Darling developed an early appreciation for nature and wildlife during days spent wandering the prairie. He began to learn the importance of conservation as a youth after an uncle admonished him for shooting a wood duck during nesting season.

Jay N. "Ding" Darling's parody of Richard F. Outcault's popular cartoon character, the “Yellow Kid” that was published in the 1899 Codex yearbook of Beloit College

Darling began college in 1894 at Yankton College in South Dakota and moved to Beloit College in Wisconsin the following year, where he began his studies in pre-medicine and became a member of Beta Theta Pi. While at Beloit he became art editor of the yearbook and began signing his work with a contraction of his last name, D'ing, a nickname that stuck.

In 1900, Ding became a reporter for the Sioux City Journal. Following his marriage to Genevieve Pendleton in 1906, he began work with the Des Moines Register and Leader. In 1911, he moved to New York and worked with the New York Globe but went back to Des Moines in 1913. Three years later, in 1916, he returned to New York and accepted a position with the New York Herald Tribune. By 1919, Darling returned a final time to Des Moines where he continued his career as a cartoonist, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1924 and again in 1943. His cartoons were published from 1917 to 1949 in the New York Herald Tribune.

Darling penned some conservation cartoons and he was an important figure in the conservation movement. President Franklin Roosevelt appointed him to a blue ribbon Committee on Wildlife Restoration in 1934. FDR sought political balance by putting the Hoover Republican on the committee, knowing he was an articulate advocate for wildlife management.

Darling initiated the Federal Duck Stamp program and designed the first stamp. Roosevelt appointed him as head of the U.S. Biological Survey, forerunner of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The J. N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island in southwest Florida is named after him, as is the Lake Darling State Park in Iowa that was dedicated on September 17, 1950. Lake Darling, a 9,600-acre lake at the Upper Souris National Wildlife Refuge is also named in his honor. More recently a lodge at the National Conservation Training Center near Shepherdstown, West Virginia was named in his honor.

Darling was elected as a member of the Boone and Crockett Club, a wildlife conservation organization, on December 13, 1934.

He was instrumental in founding the National Wildlife Federation in 1936, when President Franklin Roosevelt convened the first North American Wildlife Conference, administered by the American Wildlife Institute 

Darling died on February 12,1962.