New University of Iowa Libraries Exhibit Spotlights Conservationist Ding Darling
Starting this fall, University of Iowa alumni and friends can experience It’s Been Wonderful Knowing You: Wildlife Conservation and Advocacy Through the Lens of Jay N. “Ding” Darling at the Main Library Gallery. The exhibit celebrates the 150th anniversary of Darling’s birth and commemorates his life as an artist, advocate, and environmentalist.
Darling (1876–1962) was a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist at the Des Moines Register, where many of his cartoons addressed environmental issues and wildlife preservation. In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed the Sioux City, Iowa, native as the director of the United States Bureau of Biological Survey (a precursor to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), where Darling designed the first federal duck stamp. Two years later, he became founder and president of the National Wildlife Federation and devised annual wildlife stamps to support conservation.
Darling also served as the first chairman of the Iowa Fish and Game Commission (now known as the Iowa Department of Natural Resources) and has a national wildlife refuge in Florida named in his honor. In Iowa, Lake Darling State Park near Brighton—about an hour’s drive southwest of Iowa City—also bears his name.
Curated by Lindsay Moen (11BA, 14MA) and Collin Vandewalle (25MA), the library exhibit will showcase many items from Darling’s papers in the UI Libraries Special Collections and Archives, including the watercolor paintings that became wildlife stamps. Other Iowans who contributed to conservation efforts, including artist and naturalist Shirley Briggs (39BA, 40MA), will also be highlighted.
“Darling’s papers are one of the most heavily used collections and have a worldwide research audience,” says Moen. “Working on this exhibit has been a wonderful opportunity for Collin and me to expand the visibility of Darling’s legacy to an even wider audience such as alumni, who we hope are interested in visiting the Main Library Gallery when they’re on campus.”