Jay Norwood Darling was a political cartoonist and lifelong Republican when he was asked by Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt to head the new U.S. Bureau of Biological Survey in Washington, D.C. That agency later became the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Finding himself placed in charge of the wetlands revitalization effort--the Migratory Bird Conservation Act passed in 1929 called for an $8 million program to improve duck havens without specifying the source of the funding--Darling used his artist background to generate possibilities.

He developed sketches in anticipation of a new hunting stamp that would fund the program. His Mallards Dropping In design was accepted and the first "duck stamp" was formed. This stamp began a continuing series of annual revenue stamps that are required by duck hunters and sought after by both conservationists and stamp collectors for their beauty. Later issues are in full color and exhibit the work of some of the best wildlife artists of the country. In its first 50 years alone, the duck stamp program generated more than $250 million in revenues.