SUMMARY:
Two press clippings profile Miss Joan Procter, newly appointed Curator of Reptiles at the Zoological Gardens, highlighting her fearless fascination with snakes and her expertise despite her youth. They note her studies and work with Dr. Boulenger at the Natural History Museum and mention reptiles kept at her West Kensington flat.
CONTENT:
Cutting from the Leeds Mercury
Address of Publication
Issue dated. 24-4-23
WOMEN AND SNAKES.
A Zoo Curator Who Loves
Reptiles.
From a Scientific Correspondent.
The attitude of men, and still
more of women, to snakes is strangely
illogical. To most people they are
extremely repulsive objects. Even those
which are harmless inspire a loath-
ing, which seems unaccountable in
view of the beauty of their markings
and colour. This feeling of disgust is
not fear, though no doubt fear enters
into it. That much more dangerous
animal, a tiger, excites our highest
admiration.
On the other hand there are a
few people for whom these reptiles have
a singular fascination; they handle
them entirely without fear and keep
some of the most deadly varieties as
pets. To this category belongs Miss
Joan Proctor, who at the early age of
25 has been appointed curator of
reptiles at the Zoo. She seems to be
entirely devoid of fear where snakes
are concerned, and her remarkable gift
was noticeable even in her early child-
hood.
She is one of those happy indi-
viduals whose natural bent is so
pronounced that they are never in
doubt as to the proper sphere of their
life's work. Her natural qualities
have been improved by earnest study
and she is now one of the greatest
experts on reptiles in the world.
How is it possible to account for
such strange differences in the feelings
aroused by these creatures? They are,
we believe, without a parallel. Both
the loathing and the fascination
appear to be instinctive and not due
to training or experience. Both alike
are entirely unreasonable.
For the loathing it may be possible
to account by assuming that our remote
ancestors lived for hundreds of genera-
tions in regions swarming with deadly
reptiles. Under such circumstances
the only children who would survive
would be those who felt a mortal and
unreasoning terror of these creatures,
prompting them to shrink away at
their every appearance. Though the
conditions have long since passed away
the unreasoning loathing persists in
every generation.
The fascination presents a more
obscure problem. There is reason to
believe that it is strongly hereditary,
and it may be possible that while the
majority found safety in excessive fear,
here and there individuals established
a somewhat mysterious affinity for
these creatures which protected them
from attack, and which likewise has
persisted through generations.
From The General Press Cutting
Association, Ltd.
ATLANTIC HOUSE,
45-50, HOLBORN VIADUCT, E.C. 1.
TELEPHONE: HOLBORN 4815.
Cutting from the Daily Graphic
Address of Publication
Issue dated. 24.4.25.
SNAKE CHARMER
OF THE ZOO.
Woman Takes Charge of
the Creepy Things.
YOUTH AND PLUCK.
Not Afraid of the Boa
Constrictor.
By A WOMAN REPORTER.
LOOKING after snakes and other
creepy things hardly sounds a
woman's job, but young Miss Joan
Procter is taking it on.
Miss Procter—who is entitled to write
F.Z.S., and F.L.S. after her name—has just
been appointed Curator of Reptiles at the
Zoological Gardens.
After a vain search at the Zoo and at the
Natural History Museum yesterday, I was at
last able to track her
to the West Kensing-
ton flat she shares with
her mother.
“I hope to be back
at work soon,” she told
me, “but at present, as
you see, I have to stop
in bed and am on sick
leave.”
The thing that strikes
one most about Miss
Procter is her extreme
youth. Propped up
among the pillows, she
looked so small and
frail that you would
imagine she had not
Miss Joan Procter,
the courage to face a mouse, let alone a python.
Her pale, elfish face has a look of determination
about it, however, and there is a glint in her
eye that would quell the spirit of the most un-
ruly boa constrictor.
Snakes Instead of China.
Round Miss Procter's bedroom hang snake
skins of every kind. On the table was a half-
made snake skin bag, on the floor lay snake skin
shoes.
Ever since she was a child, not so very long
ago either, Miss Procter has been interested in
reptiles. As soon as she left St. Paul's School
for Girls at Hammersmith she became voluntary
assistant to Dr. Boulenger at the Natural History
Museum.
Her love of keeping reptiles as pets, acquired
as a school girl, has not left her yet, and anyone
who strays unawares into her drawing-room is
apt to get a shock.
You look into one of those low glass-fronted
cabinets, in which one expects to find Crown
Derby or Chinese ivories, and you recoil before
a couple of water snakes from Brazil, or a small,
harmless native of Tanganyika. They are being
kept only temporarily at the flat.