Ding Darling
American editorial cartoonist (1876–1962)
Jay Norwood Darling (October 21, 1876 – February 12, 1962), 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. In addition, he was known to be close friends with Walt Disney.
Early life
Darling was born 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.
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.
Editorial cartoons
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.
“Ding Darling” enters the record as american editorial cartoonist (1876–1962). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Ding, Darling and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ding Darling” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.