Editing Ding Darling (section)

== Early life ==
[[File:Jay N. "Ding" Darling's parody of the popular cartoon character, the “Yellow Kid” published in the 1899 Codex yearbook of Beloit College.webp|left|thumb|Jay N. "Ding" Darling's parody of Richard F. Outcault's popular cartoon character the "[[The Yellow Kid|Yellow Kid]]", published in the 1899 Codex yearbook of Beloit College]]
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.<ref name="Biographical">{{cite book |last1=Sterling |first1=Keir B. |last2=Harmond |first2=Richard P. |last3=Cevasco |first3=George A. |last4=Hammond |first4=Lorne F. |title=Biographical Dictionary of American and Canadian Naturalists and Environmentalists |date=1997 |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |location=[[Westport, Connecticut|Westport, Conn.]] |isbn=978-0-313-23047-9 |pages=191–192 |url=https://archive.org/details/biographicaldict0000unse_p7q0/page/192/mode/2up |access-date=April 13, 2023 |language=en}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|date=2021|title=Ding Darling|url=https://www.iowapbs.org/iowapathways/mypath/ding-darling|url-status=live|website=Iowa Pathways|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029230400/http://www.iowapbs.org/iowapathways/mypath/ding-darling |archive-date=2020-10-29 }}</ref>

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]].<ref name="Beta">{{cite book |editor1-last=Brown |editor1-first=James T. |title=Catalogue of Beta Theta Pi |date=1917 |publisher=James T. Brown |location=New York, New York |page=20 |edition=Ninth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KGs4AAAAMAAJ&q=darling&pg=RA14-PP2 |access-date=April 13, 2023 |language=en}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0"/>