Buffleheads by J.N. "Ding" Darling

The bufflehead is one of my favorite species of duck. I wrote about buffleheads in 2019 and showed a piece of art by Mac Heaton (1925-2002), a wildlife artist who worked for a long time with the Indiana Department of Conservation. You can see that picture by clicking here. Now I have another picture of buffleheads, this one by Jay Norwood "Ding" Darling (1876-1962). (Those are ruddy ducks on the right.) Although he was better known as a political and editorial cartoonist, Darling was also a conservationist and wildlife artist. The J. N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island, Florida, is named in his honor. The illustration below is from a full-page feature called "Don't Shoot These Ducks! Uncle Sam's Laws Protect Them," from the Sunday Des Moines Register, November 1, 1936.

Darling was born in Norwood, Michigan. His very slim connection to Indiana was by way of living in the Hoosier State for a brief time when he was young.

Text copyright 2022, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

Buffleheads by Mac Heaton (1925-2002)

February is the month in which migratory ducks return to the Midwest--if they weren't already here in January--and one of the cutest and most fun to watch is the little bufflehead. Buffleheads are diving ducks, and where they dive is in our big rivers and lakes. First you'll see the bright white head of the male. Then you'll see him plunge, only to come up again somewhere close by. In its issue of January 1964, Outdoor Indiana had buffleheads on its cover in a portrait by Mac Heaton (1925-2002). If you're lucky and you look hard enough this late winter, maybe you'll see the real thing.

Text copyright 2019, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

Mac Heaton Art Gallery

This year--this month in fact--is the centennial year of the establishment of the National Park Service (NPS), a milestone in the history of conservation in America. Two thousand sixteen is also the bicentennial year of the State of Indiana. Lost in those two big celebrations is the fact that 2016 is also the centennial year of the first state parks in Indiana, acquired through the tireless efforts of Richard Lieber (1869-1944). McCormick's Creek State Park, located in Owen County, was Indiana's first. Turkey Run State Park, located in Parke County and Colonel Lieber's favorite, came next. Both were dedicated on December 16, 1916, in conjunction with the centennial celebration of Indiana statehood. A little more than two years later, in March 1919, the governor signed a bill creating the Indiana Department of Conservation. Colonel Richard Lieber was named the first director. In 1965, the Indiana Department of Conservation was renamed the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (IDNR). The agency still bears that name.

The Department of Conservation began publishing a magazine called Outdoor Indiana in February 1934. In this age when magazines seem to be dying, Outdoor Indiana is still in print. In June 1945, artist Malcolm C. Heaton (1925-2002) went to work for Outdoor Indiana. In time he became art director of the Department of Conservation. Nicknamed Mac, Heaton was a versatile artist, as the illustrations below will show. He was adept at painting, drawing, and even cartooning. He worked at a time when state conservation agencies employed some outstanding wildlife artists, including Charles Schwartz (1914-1991) in Missouri, Bob Hines (1912-1994) in Ohio, and Ned Smith (1919-1985) in Pennsylvania. Mac Heaton stood among them as an artist from what might be called the golden age of conservation in America.

"Cornfield Covey" by Mac Heaton, a painting depicting a river-bottom field in Greene County, the artist's home county, for the November 1963 issue of Outdoor Indiana. Unfortunately, despite all the efforts of conservationists, a covey of bobwhite quail has become a rare sight in Indiana.

A drawing of a gull by Heaton, showing that he worked just as well in halftone as in full color. This illustration is from an article called "Gulls of Michigan City" by James Landing, from Outdoor Indiana, August 1963.

On March 22, 1824, seven white men murdered nine American Indians near Pendleton, Indiana, in an event now called the Fall Creek Massacre. The men were tried and some were executed for their crimes. It was the first time in American history that a white man was executed for a crime against an Indian. Outdoor Indiana had an article about the massacre in its August 1963 issue. The author was Arville L. Funk. Mac Heaton provided the illustration.

In addition to being an illustrator, Heaton was a cartoonist. Here is one of his cartoons, from the back cover of Outdoor Indiana, February 1964.

Finally, another back cover drawing, this one illustrating a biological concept, "Coverings," from Outdoor Indiana, July 1964. 

Note: My computer died last month, and though I have a new computer, I have been without a scanner for a while. Now I'm back in the blogging business, but I have fallen well behind in my writing. Please bear with me while I catch up.

Text copyright 2016, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

Mac Heaton (1925-2002)

I would like to observe two anniversaries by remembering Indiana illustrator Mac Heaton. Tomorrow, September 1, 2013, is the seventy-fourth anniversary of the beginning of World War II. Next month, on September 20 through 23, the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources at Purdue University will celebrate its centennial.

Malcolm C. "Mac" Heaton was born on June 29, 1925. As a child he lived in Bloomfield, Indiana, which may have been his place of birth. When he was in high school, Heaton received a few lessons from a commercial artist in his hometown. Otherwise he was mostly self taught. Heaton graduated from Bloomfield High School and went to work for the Indiana Department of Conservation in June 1945. Six months later he had his first illustrations printed in Outdoor Indiana magazine. His illustrations also appeared in a magazine published by Purdue University under the guidance of Howard Michaud, a longtime professor of forestry.

Eventually Mac Heaton worked his way up to be art director at the Indiana Department of Conservation, now the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. His illustrations appeared in Outdoor Indiana for many years. He also created designs for stamps and postcards, and he illustrated Escape from Corregidor by Edgar Whitcomb (1958), who later became governor. In his book, Gov. Whitcomb recounted the story of his escape from captivity during World War II. Unfortunately I don't have an image of Heaton's artwork for the governor's book.

Malcolm Heaton was married to Naomi Noel, a schoolteacher, in 1948. He died on January 1, 2002. She passed away nearly six years later. They are buried together in Carmel, Indiana.

Mac Heaton specialized in wildlife art. Here is his design for the Indiana Gamebird Habitat Stamp for 1980. It's worth noting that Heaton's home county, Greene County, passed one of the first conservation laws in Indiana, making it illegal to poison fish. The year was 1849.

A postcard design by Mac Heaton of Chief Simon Pokagon (1830-1899) of the  Potawatomi  tribe.

Text and captions copyright 2013, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

Thomas R. Funderburk (1928-1999)

Thomas Ray Funderburk was born on November 8, 1928, in Hammond, Indiana. He served in the Marine Corps from 1946 to 1948 and graduated from Indiana University in 1952. Funderburk was assistant art director for Bantam Books from 1961 to 1966, when he went off on his own as a freelance artist, writer, and designer. He wrote two well-regarded books on airplanes, The Fighters: The Men and Machines of the First Air War (1965) and The Early Birds of War: The Daring Pilots and Fighter Aeroplanes of World War I (1968). Funderburk also illustrated several books, including Stormy Voyager: The Story of Charles Wilkes by Robert Silverberg (1968), The Nature of Animals by Lorus and Margery Milne (1969), and Whales: A First Book by Helen Hoke and Valerie Pitt (1981). Funderburk died on December 30, 1999, at age seventy-one.

Thomas Funderburk (left) from his days at Indiana University, from The Arbutus.

The Nature of Animals by Lorus and Margery Milne (1969), illustrated by Thomas R. Funderburk.

Funderburk's own Early Birds of War from 1968.

Updated December 6, 2019.
Text and captions copyright 2011, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

Robert K. Abbett (1926-2015)

Robert Kennedy Abbett was born in Hammond, Indiana, on January 5, 1926, to Clarence C. and Vere (Kennedy) Abbett. He studied nights at the Chicago Academy of Fine Art and graduated from Purdue University and the University of Missouri. Bob Abbett served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.

Abbett wrote for a public relations firm in Chicago before embarking on a career as an artist, working in succession for a number of art studios. His first magazine illustrations were for Extension magazine. Abbett's list of freelance clients during the 1950s and '60s includes Argosy, Reader's Digest, Redbook, Sports Afield, This Week, and True, as well as Ballantine, Bantam, Dell, Fawcett, Pocket, Pyramid, and Signet books.

Bob Abbett left illustration behind in the 1970s, afterwards devoting himself to painting pictures of outdoor sporting scenes, hunting dogs, game animals, and similar subjects. He was also a portraitist, a teacher, and magazine columnist. He lived at his own Oakdale Farm in Connecticut for many years and died at home in Bridgewater, Connecticut, on June 20, 2015. He was eighty-nine years old.

You can read more about Bob Abbett at his official website, Oakdale Prints, here, and on a recent blog entry at a blog called Today's Inspiration by Leif Peng, here. A Google Image search will show a variety of Mr. Abbett's many fine paperback cover illustrations from the 1960s. Below is a small sampling from my own library.

Revised and updated on December 6, 2019.
Text copyright 2011, 2024 by Terence E. Hanley