Lois McIntyre was born in 1917. As a young girl growing up around Riverside, Connecticut, she became an accomplished sailor and won several titles, including the 1941 national woman's sailing championship, sponsored by the NAYRU. By then she was considered the "most famous member of her sailing clan".

Darling also trained as an artist and illustrator, and used these skills to illustrate publications for the Navy during World War II. She also worked as a model builder, assisting in the production of dockyard models of warships.

Following the war Lois attended Columbia University where she did undergraduate and graduate work in zoology. This she combined with her artistic ability when she became staff artist for the Department of Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. This combination of interests paralleled those of her husband Louis Darling, and resulted in their careers of writing and illustrating books about the natural sciences. They were also founding members of the Catboat Association. Lois also produced illustrations for magazines, with Yachting Magazine featuring her work on the cover of several issues during the 1940's and 1950's.

The American Museum of Natural History's centennial celebration of the 1859 publication of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species attracted Lois' attention to the lack of detailed information regarding HMS BEAGLE, the bark in which Darwin made his voyage of scientific discovery. The project proved to be a perfect challenge for this meticulous and indefatigable woman.

Her initial research resulted in the exquisite model of HMS BEAGLE (now part of the collection at Mystic Seaport Museum) which was exhibited in the Darwin centennial. However, Lois was not satisfied with the extent of data she had found, and so began what was to become more than twenty years of sporadic inquiry. The following decades of "Beagling" brought together numerous bits of knowledge which she then used to refine her model and record though articles published in the Log of Mystic Seaport Museum, The Mariner's Mirror, and Sea History.

Lois Darling's interest could focus so intently on a detail of history like her BEAGLE project, but she also had the extraordinary scope to encompass the global concerns of environmental mismanagement and nuclear disaster. With equal determinations she sought to alert people to these dangers, and many have benefited from their efforts. Her work stands as a tribute to the exceptional lady who produced it.