Showing 11 results

SUMMARY:
Multiple newspaper clippings from early September 1923 report Miss Joan Proctor’s appointment as Curator of Reptiles at the London Zoo/London Zoological Gardens, noting her prior work with reptiles and aquarium rockwork design. One clipping discusses Miss Cheesman’s temporary withdrawal from the insect curator post for a South Pacific expedition and mentions related figures and institutions.

CONTENT:
SEPTEMBER, 1923
THE CHURCH MILITANT

Miss Joan Proctor, F.L.S., F.Z.S., has been appointed
Curator of the Reptiles at the Zoo, in which department she
has been working since 1916.

THE NEWS OF THE WORLD SEPT. 2. 1923.

THE ZOO LADY CURATOR OF REPTILES.
Miss Joan B. Proctor, who has been appointed Curator of Reptiles at the London Zoo. She
is seen wearing one of her charges as a necklet.

Cutting from the Worcester Daily Times
Address of Publication
Issue dated 4.9.23

In view of her appointment on the personnel
of the Scientific Expeditionary Research As-
sociation's coming expedition to the South
Pacific, Miss Cheesman, who in 1917 became
curator of insects in the London Zoo under
Professor Maxwell Lefroy, will be temporarily
withdrawn from that position. Miss Chees-
man enjoys the distinction of having been the
first lady curator appointed by the Zoological
Society, and during her tenure of the post she
has created almost a revolution in the beauti-
ful insect house presented some years ago by
the late Sir William Caird. The Society has
also quite recently appointed a lady curator of
reptiles, in the person of Miss Jean Proctor,
F.Z.S., F.L.S., who for several years she
worked in the reptile department of the Brit-
ish Museum as voluntary assistant to Dr. Bou-
lenger, and latterly in full charge. It was
curious that the only lady curators who
specialise in creepy-crawly forms of life.

Canadian
Lepto
Bosses Snakes
CANADIAN

Miss Joan Proctor, an English girl
of 25, has just been appointed curator
of reptiles at the London Zoological
Gardens. She is one of the best
known experts on snakes in the
world.

Cutting from the Liverpool Courier
Address of Publication
Issue dated 4.9.23

HER REPTILIAN FAMILY.
The second of the lady curators
appointed by the Zoological Society, Miss
Joan Procter, will take over her duties
in charge of the reptiles at Regent's
Park during the autumn.
Miss Procter has plenty of practical
experience of these strange pets, for,
apart from work which she has fulfilled
in the reptile department of the Museum
at South Kensington, she has for several
years kept a private collection of live
snakes and batrachians. She has designed
the whole of the rockwork for the new
aquarium at the Zoo.

SUMMARY:
Clippings report on women’s achievements and fashions and profile Miss Joan Proctor, Curator of Reptiles at the Zoological Gardens. They describe her creating a heated nursery in the Reptile House for baby crocodiles and alligators from the West Coast of Africa.

CONTENT:
JANUARY 1. 1924.
Evening News.
Cutting from the Evening News
Publication
20.2.24

WOMEN LAST YEAR—AND THIS.
Consolidation the Keynote. No New Stars. Some Notable Feats.
dated 24.2.24

ZOO BABIES.
A keeper at the Zoo with the baby crocodiles which have just arrived from the West Coast of Africa. Miss Proctor, the curator of the reptiles, is making a special nursery for them.

A Young Expert.
Another case in which a woman has been given an entirely new appointment is that of Miss Joan Proctor, F.Z.S., F.L.S., who, at 25, is Curator of Reptiles at the Zoo, and, although unknown to the world at large, is famous among zoologists as one of the greatest experts on reptiles.

In 1929 the first woman—Mrs. Annie Swynnerton—was elected to the Royal Academy, since the time of Sir Joshua Reynolds.

In legal matters the right of a woman to divorce her husband for unfaithfulness without cruelty is one of the most important things that has happened to women since the passing of the Married Women's Property Act.

The Fashion World.
In the world of dress the most conspicuous of the successful fashions is the low heel for shoes and the maintenance of that silhouette which needs a "natural" or no corset.
The Women's Golf Union have decided to have a club of their own colours. So, probably, that will mean fewer woollen jumpers and more shirt blouses among golfing fashions of 1924. Miss Cecil Leitch has always been faithful to the shirt-blouse mode.

Literature and the Stage.
In the social sense the opening of so many men's clubs to women has marked an advance in the so-much-valued "equality." In literature no new stars have arisen on the firmament of women: at least, if they have risen we have not yet noticed them. Out of the thousands of books published during 1923 there has been no novel by a new author that is indubitably epoch-making.

"NURSERY for Baby Crocodiles," says a headline. A lover of children says he's going to write to the N.S.P.C.C. about it.

NURSERY FOR BABY
CROCODILES

—AND A WOMAN AS "NURSE"
AT THE ZOO.

THREE MEALS A WEEK.

Miss Joan Proctor, Curator of Reptiles at the Zoological Gardens, is very busy just now making a nursery for baby crocodiles.
Six of these have just arrived from the West Coast of Africa, and as they are only eighteen months old and very small and tender they need a lot of care.
Miss Proctor's nursery will consist of a special tank with rockwork and other decorations dear to the heart of the juvenile crocodile. To compensate the new arrivals for the loss of the African sunshine, and to make them feel as much at home as possible, a radiator is being buried in the sand under the bottom of the tank, and by this means the temperature of the water will be kept at 85 degrees.
Young crocodiles like to be kept warm.

LEISURELY GROWERS.
The tank will be fixed in the Reptile House and is to be officially known as "The Nursery."
When first hatched these baby crocodiles were only six inches long, but if they keep fit and well, and make normal progress, they may reach a length of thirty feet in time, though no one now living is likely to be here to see them then.
These crocodiles, which are similar to those found in the Nile, live to a tremendous age, and go on growing for years and years.
The biggest crocodile now in the reptile house is getting on for 10. He is about 14 feet in length, and still has a long way to go. The older he gets, the less often does he feed. At present he only has a meal once a fortnight. It generally consists of a pound of meat.

NO HUSTLING FOR THEM!
Young crocodiles, however, need feeding two or three times a week, and the lusty youngsters who have just arrived at the Zoo are doing very well on a diet of chopped meat and small fish. All being well, they will grow quickly at first, and two years will make an appreciable difference to their size.
But when they are about 6 feet long they will slow down and begin to take life easily. From then onwards their rate of growth will be about an inch a year!
That is the way of crocodiles. You cannot "hustle" them.

BABY ALLIGATORS
Two of the six baby alligators which have arrived at the Zoo and are in a special nursery designed by Miss Joan Proctor.

ILLUSTRATED SUNDAY HERALD, FEBRUARY 24, 1924.

SUMMARY:
Clippings report new arrivals at the Regent's Park Reptile House—Hardwick's Mastigures, a pigmy chameleon, a blue-tongued lizard, and several snakes—and note their behaviors and origins. Another article from the Public Ledger (Philadelphia) announces that Miss Joan Proctor has been chosen to take charge of the reptile house at the London Zoo in 1933.

CONTENT:
NEW REPTILES AT
THE ZOO.
LIZARD'S TONGUE LIKE PIECE
OF BRIGHT BLUE CLOTH,
PIGMY CHAMELEON.

Within the last few days the collection ex-
hibited in the Reptile House at Regent's
Park has been enriched by the arrival of a
number of new lizards and snakes of great
interest, which still further add to the many
attractions offered by this popular section of
the Zoo.
Of the lizards, the curious and strangely-
named Hardwick's Mastigures are among the
most noteworthy, both by reason of their un-
usual appearance and characteristic habits.
These reptiles belong to a group known as
Spiny-tailed lizards, all the members of which
are provided with thick, rather short though
well-developed tails, bearing numerous sharp
spines arranged in a series of rings.
The head is very short and rounded, while the
teeth, instead of being small and conical as in the
better-known lizards, are few in number and
united into broad grinding or cutting surfaces.
Vegetable Feeders.
The reason for this special modification is that
the Spiny-tails are all vegetable feeders, where-
as the typical lizards subsist, for the main part
at least, on animal food in the form of insects,
worms, etc.
These sombrely coloured and rather grotesque
creatures present a strange appearance as they
recline lazily on the sand of their cases, placidly
munching oats or maize, their unhurried move-
ments and benign expression being well in keep-
ing with their gentle and inoffensive disposition.
In a state of nature the Hardwick's Mastigure
occurs in the desert region of Baluchistan and
Northern India, where it lives in burrows, from
which it is dislodged only with the utmost diffi-
culty. When attacked it will cling firmly to
the walls of its retreat with its limbs, hanging on
with remarkable pertinacity, at the same time
blocking the entrance to the burrow with its
stout, spiny tail.
Changing Colour.
A pigmy chameleon is another newcomer, and
though of very diminutive stature—its body ex-
clusive of the tail measuring but little more than
three inches—has many features to recommend
it to public notice.
Like the larger species, this bizarre little crea-
ture possesses the faculty of changing colour in
an extraordinary degree, and even within the
confines of its comparatively small case is not
easily recognised, so closely does the hue of its
skin harmonise with whatever object the reptile
may choose as a resting place.
The deception is still further assisted by the
laterally compressed body and the attitudes
assumed by the animal, which will remain quite
motionless for hours together, only exhibiting
evidence of life by rolling its globe-like eyes, each
of which is kept in constant movement inde-
pendently of the other.
Unlike the majority of chameleons the pigmy
species gives birth to living young, as many as
twelve little ones—perfect miniatures of their
parents—being produced at a single birth.

A CHAMELEON.

Blue-tongued Lizard.
A blue-tongued lizard, with a tongue like a
piece of bright blue cloth; Indo-Chinese and
Indian rat snakes, well known in India as valu-
able vermin destroyers; a rare spot-ringed snake
from Brazil, and some Indian cobras are also
included among the animals which have just
arrived at the Gardens.
E.R.D.

PUBLIC LEDGER—PHILADELPHIA
SATURDAY MORNING, JULY 21, 1933

Girl Chosen to Take Charge
of Snakes at London Zoo

Member of Noted Scientific Societies Has
Made Reptiles Her Hobby Since
Early Childhood

Public Ledger Foreign Service
Copyright, 1933, by Public Ledger Company
London, July 20.—(By Wireless.)—
Miss Joan Proctor, who at twenty-five
years of age already sports two sets
of initials after her name, has realized
the ambition of her life. She has become
the world's greatest snake charmer,
and within a few months will assume
her new duties as mistress of the reptile
house at the London Zoo. She was
busy preparing models for the rock-
work which is to adorn the new home
now being built for her charges today.
Joan has been on intimate terms with
snakes since early girlhood. She has the
utmost contempt for those of her sex
or mere males who prefer almost any
other creature to a snake for a pet.
Collecting snakes, lizards, frogs, toads
and other members of the reptile fam-
ily has been her hobby since she was
ten years old—a tendency possibly in-
herited from her grandfather, who was a
distinguished entomologist.
Joan became assistant to the curator
of reptiles at the Zoological Gardens
when she was eighteen. She read her
first paper on snakes before the Zoologi-
cal Society a later and at twenty
became a fellow of that society. Two
weeks ago she was elected a fellow of
the Linnean Society of London, one of
the world's foremost scientific bodies.
But Joan has equipment other than
mental for her work. She looks like a
snake charmer—diminutive, sinuous,
with the jet black hair and beady, glit-
tering eyes. She is fully impressed with
the dignity of her new position. Today
she declared her intention to heed
closely the unwritten ethics of her pro-
fession.
"I really cannot grant an interview,"
she said, and then disappeared as mys-
teriously as one of her charges.

SUMMARY:
Press clippings report Miss Joan Proctor’s appointment as curator of reptiles at the London Zoological Gardens, highlighting her expertise with snakes and her work at the British Museum and South Kensington’s Natural History Museum. Items include notices from Ottawa, the New York Tribune, and the Adelaide Register dated October 1923.

CONTENT:
OTTAWA
BOSSES SNAKES.
City (Ottawa)

Miss Joan Proctor, an English
girl of 25, has just been appointed
curator of reptiles at the London
Zoological Gardens. She is one of
the best known experts on snakes
in the world.

RULES SNAKES

JEAN PROCTOR.
(Kadri & Herbert Photo.)
This young woman has special-
ized in the study of reptiles and is
said to be able to handle snakes
which would be enraged at the
touch of the ordinary person and
show the resentment by a poison-
ous bite. Miss Proctor recently be-
came curator of reptiles at the Lon-
don Zoological gardens.

from the
Press of Publication
dated
Register
Adelaide
Oct 16-1923

CURATOR OF REPTILES AT THE LONDON "ZOO," MISS
JOAN PROCTOR, WITH A FRIEND.

Preserving reptile to the daily occupation of Miss Joan Proc-
tor, F.Z.S., F.L.S. In her spare time she studies their habits. One
of the greatest experts on snakes in her day, Miss Proctor has
worked since 1916 in the reptile department at the British
Museum—first as a voluntary assistant, and then as expert in
charge. She is the author of a large number of papers on the
anatomy, classification, and habits of reptiles and batrachians,
and owns a private collection of living specimens.

Cutting from the
Address of Publication
Issue dated
Register
Adelaide
Oct 11/23

Her Reptilian Family.
The second of the lady curators ap-
pointed by the Zoological Society, Miss
Joan Proctor, will take over her duties
in charge of the reptiles at Regent's Park
during the autumn. Miss Proctor has
plenty of practical experience of these
strange pets, for, apart from work which
she has fulfilled in the reptile department,
of the museum at South Kensington, she
has for several years kept a private collec-
tion of live snakes and batrachians. She
has designed the whole of the rockwork
for the new aquarium at the Zoo.

NEW YORK
TRIBUNE
Reptiles Put
Under Care of
Woman Expert

Snakes Are Special Pets of
Miss Joan Proctor, Who
Has Been Appointed as a
Curator in London Zoo

New York Trib. LONDON,
Snakes and crocodiles are not, per-
haps, the most pleasant creatures with
which to live, but Miss Joan Proctor
evidently thinks otherwise. This
young Englishwoman has just been
appointed curator of the reptile house
at the London Zoological Gardens,
where she will have entire charge of
the cobras, the pythons, the alligators
and all the other reptiles.
Miss Proctor's grandfather was a
famous entomologist, so possibly her
interest and aptitude in the subject
are inherited. It certainly looks as
though she is going to become as well
known as he was, for already she is
looked on by zoologists as one of the
greatest of snake experts.
When in her very early teens she
happened to visit the chief of the rep-
tile department at the South Kensing-
ton Natural History Museum and so
astonished him by her knowledge of
ophiology—she had kept snakes and
lizards as pets since her tenth birth-
day—that he offered to train her in
the subject. Accordingly, as soon as
she left school she became Dr. Bou-
lenger's assistant, this at the age of
eighteen, and when he resigned she
was appointed to his post. Last year
the New York Zoological Society of-
fered her a job, but she would not
leave the Kensington Museum. Now,
of course, she will have to give up her
work there.
The young expert came into real
contact with the zoological society at
the age of nineteen when she read her
first paper, on pit snakes, before them.
A year later they made her F. Z. S.
At the beginning of July she gained
another distinction by being elected
F. L. S., Fellow of the Linnean Society,
one of the foremost scientific organi-
zations in the world.
Being surrounded by snakes during
her attendance at the zoo apparently
is not enough for Miss Proctor, and
she keeps six Brazilian snakes in a
glass cage in her drawing-room. These
were sent her as a gift. Noted scien-
tists in South America and South
Africa have frequently sent rare and
deadly reptiles to England, knowing
her interest, and most of these she
keeps at her own home.

SUMMARY:
Press cuttings profile Miss Joan Procter/Proctor as Curator of Reptiles at the Zoological Gardens of London, noting her expertise, refusal of a New York offer, and her design work for the new aquarium. Items also mention E. G. Boulenger’s appointment to direct the aquarium and related details.

CONTENT:
Snake Expert.
THE AMERICAN
AUG. 1923

Photo by Kadel & Herbert.
MISS JOAN PROCTOR.
Not an ordinary snake charmer
is Miss Proctor, F. Z. S. F. L. S.,
but Curator of Reptiles at the
Zoological Gardens of London.
She is an English girl, twenty-five
years of age, and regarded the
greatest authority on snakes in
the world. She recently refused
an offer from the New York
Zoological Society.

Le Matin (Paris)

11. Aug.

ÉCHOS ET PROPOS

L'ECOLE DE LA TENTATION. —
C'est une femme, une jeune fille même,
la frêle, délicate et gracieuse miss Procter qui
est chargée, au jardin zoologique de Londres,
de la section... des serpents.

Et je constate que les serpents et les fem-
mes ont décidément des affinités dont la pru-
dence masculine devrait commencer sérieuse-
ment à prendre ombrage.

Chacun connaît l'entente extrêmement cor-
diale qui existait entre notre mère Eve et l'an-
cêtre des serpents, et chacun sait aussi ce qui
en est résulté.

Seulement, voilà, du temps de notre mère
Eve, il y avait un paradis à perdre.
Tandis que maintenant...
Rosine

Cutting from the Nottingham Express
Address of Publication.
Issue dated

4. 9. 23

HER REPTILIAN FAMILY.

The second of the lady curators appointed by
the Zoological Society, Miss Joan Procter, will
take over her duties in charge of the reptiles at
Regent's Park during the autumn. Miss Procter
has plenty of practical experience of these strange
pets, for, apart from work which she has fulfilled
in the reptile department of the museum at South
Kensington, she has for several years kept a private
collection of live snakes and batrachians. She has
designed the whole of the rockwork for the new
aquarium at the Zoo.

Extract from
THE ENGLISHMAN
CALCUTTA.
Date
10 AUG 1929

WOMAN CURATOR OF
REPTILES

APPOINTMENTS AT THE LONDON
ZOO

Mr. E. G. Boulenger, at present
Curator of Reptiles at the Zoological
Gardens, London, has been appointed
Director of the new Aquarium. He
will continue to exercise a general super-
vision over the reptiles, but for some
time he has been very fully occupied
with superintending the construction of
the aquarium, and when the tanks are
ready for occupation it is anticipated
that his time will be almost completely
engaged by his new duties. Mr. Boulen-
ger is a son of Dr. G. A. Boulenger,
F.R.S., for long chief of the Department
of Reptiles, Batrachians, and Fishes at
the British Museum of Natural History.
Since Mr. Boulenger has been Curator
at the Zoo the reptile-house has been
greatly improved, and the collection
made one of the finest in the world.
During the war he served in France
with the balloons.

Miss Joan B. Procter, F.Z.S., F.L.S.,
has been appointed Curator of Reptiles,
and will assume her duties in late
autumn. She was educated at St. Paul's
School for Girls, and since 1916 has
worked in the Reptile Department at
the British Museum, first as voluntary
assistant to Dr. Boulenger, and, since
his retirement, in charge. She is the
author of a large number of papers on
the anatomy, classification, and habits
of reptiles and batrachians, and for
many years has kept a private collection
of living snakes and batrachians. At
present Miss Procter is still carrying on
the work of the Reptile Department at
the Museum, but is also engaged in de-
signing the rockwork for the aquarium
tanks at the Zoo.

MAKING THE ZOO'S NEW AQUARIUM. Finishing one of the two hundred tanks
which are to form the new aquarium under the Mappin Terraces at the Zoo. Some of
the tanks will hold thirty tons of water. (Daily Mirror photograph.)
OCTOBER 6, 1923

SUMMARY:
Newspaper cuttings report that Miss Joan Proctor/Procter, aged 25, has been appointed Curator of Reptiles at the Zoological Gardens. Articles describe her background at the British Museum/Museum of Natural History, her expertise handling venomous snakes, and her work designing aquarium tanks and contributing to antivenom research.

CONTENT:
who ever lived. Praise she merits, but
Cutting from the Daily Post
July 19th
One Woman's Speciality.

Not to every woman would the curatorship
of reptiles at the Zoological Gardens
appeal, but to have received the position is
an honour decidedly. This honour has
fallen to Miss Joan Proctor, who will take
up her work in the autumn. Educated at
St. Paul's School for Girls, Miss Proctor
has been in the reptile department of the
British Museum for seven years, and may
be said to know her job backwards. Not
content with studying the habits, anatomy,
and little ways of reptiles and batrachians
in working hours, she keeps a collection of
the living creatures at home. She is at the
moment designing rockwork for the
aquarium tanks at the Zoo.

From the Soho News July 21st
CHAMPION GIRL SNAKE EXPERT.

Miss Joan Proctor, F.L.S.
Miss Proctor, aged 25, as already
described in the "Echo," is one of the
greatest snake experts in the world, and has
been appointed Curator of Reptiles at the
Zoological Gardens. She handles the most
deadly reptiles with the greatest ease.

Cutting from the Belfast Telegraph
Address of Publication
Issue dated 20. 7. 21

GREAT SNAKE EXPERT.
GIRL'S CHARGE OF REPTILES.
CAN HANDLE DEADLY SERPENTS.
Miss Joan Proctor, F.Z.S., an English
girl of 25, has been appointed curator of
reptiles at the Zoo. She will have com-
plete charge of dozens of venomous cobras,
deadly pythons, boa constrictors, alligators
and crocodiles. Miss Proctor, unknown to
the world at large, has for several years
gained fame as one of the greatest snake
experts of the day. The large, airy room
in the basement of the Museum of Natural
History, South Kensington, in which she
works, is filled with bottled and occasionally
live specimens of the most deadly snakes in
the world.

Miss Proctor is now engaged in designing
the 60 tanks to form the most wonderful
aquarium in the world, which are being con-
structed at a cost of £50,000, under the
Mappin Terraces in the Zoo. Miss Proctor
is making models of each tank to scale from
her studies of rocks and seaweeds made
during holidays at the seaside. Miss
Proctor has performed work of incalculable
value while at the Museum of Natural
History by preparing a complete series of
the teeth of poisonous snakes for the School
of Tropical Medicine. Her researches have
enabled the school to prepare antidotes for
the bites of various deadly snakes.
Miss Proctor is resigning in the autumn
from her present position as chief of the
department of reptiles at the British
Museum of Natural History at South Kens-
ington. She has already won many honours
that are only as a rule bestowed after a
life-time of research work. She read her
first paper on the pitsnake before the Zoo-
logical Society at the age of 19. She was
made a Fellow of the Society at 20. She
was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society,
one of the foremost scientific organisations
in the world, a fortnight ago. She is also
a Fellow of the Zoological Society of Bom-
bay, and last year was offered a remuner-
ative post by the Zoological Society of New
York.

Cutting from the Dundee Courier
Address of Publication
Issue dated 21. 7. 20

GIRL AS SNAKE EXPERT.
Miss Joan Procter, F.Z.S., F.L.S., an
Englishwoman of 25, has been appointed
curator of reptiles at the Zoo. She will
have complete charge of dozens of venomous
cobras, deadly pythons, boa constrictors, alli-
gators, and crocodiles. Miss Procter, un-
known to the world at large, is famous
among zoologists as one of the greatest
snake experts of the day. Scientists in
South Africa and South America have sent
Miss Procter rare and deadly reptiles from
jungles and swamps. Occasionally a crate
of them has been overturned on arrival, and
they have been spilled on the floor, Miss
Procter, without the slightest fear, has col-
lected the poisonous creatures from their
hiding places.

SUMMARY:
Newspaper clippings report that Miss Joan Proctor was appointed curator of the reptile house at the London Zoological Gardens. The articles describe her expertise, training under Dr. Boulenger, election as F.Z.S. and F.L.S., her refusal of an offer from the New York Zoological Society, and her keeping of snakes at home.

CONTENT:
PROVIDENCE JOURNAL
AUGUST 1923

SNAKE EXPERT OF LONDON
Miss Joan Proctor, appointed curator of
reptiles in London Zoological Gardens. She
is one of the world's greatest authorities on
the subject and recently refused an offer
from the New York Zoological Society to
come to America
Kadel & Herbert photo

Extract from
NEW YORK TRIBUNE
NEW YORK.
5 AUG 1923

Reptiles Put
Under Care of
Woman Expert

Snakes Are Special Pets of
Miss Joan Proctor, Who
Has Been Appointed as a
Curator in London Zoo

LONDON,
Snakes and crocodiles are not, per-
haps, the most pleasant creatures with
which to live, but Miss Joan Proctor
evidently thinks otherwise. This
young Englishwoman has just been
appointed curator of the reptile house
at the London Zoological Gardens,
where she will have entire charge of
the cobras, the pythons, the alligators
and all the other reptiles.
Miss Proctor's grandfather was a
famous entomologist, so possibly her
interest and aptitude in the subject
are inherited. It certainly looks as
though she is going to become as well
known as he was, for already she is
looked on by zoologists as one of the
greatest of snake experts.
When in her very early teens she
happened to visit the chief of the rep-
tile department at the South Kensing-
ton Natural History Museum and so
astonished him by her knowledge of
ophiology—she had kept snakes and
lizards as pets since her tenth birth-
day—that he offered to train her in
the subject. Accordingly, as soon as
she left school she became Dr. Bou-
lenger's assistant, this at the age of
eighteen, and when he resigned she
was appointed to his post. Last year
the New York Zoological Society of-
fered her a job, but she would not
leave the Kensington Museum. Now,
of course, she will have to give up her
work there.
The young expert came into real
contact with the Zoological Society at
the age of nineteen when she read her
first paper, on pit snakes, before them.
A year later they made her F. Z. S.
At the beginning of July she gained
another distinction by being elected
F. L. S., Fellow of the Linnaean Society,
one of the foremost scientific organi-
zations in the world.
Being surrounded by snakes during
her attendance at the zoo apparently
is not enough for Miss Proctor, and
she keeps six Brazilian snakes in a
glass cage in her drawing-room. These
were sent her as a gift. Noted scien-
tists in South America and South
Africa have frequently sent rare and
deadly reptiles to England, knowing
her interest, and most of these she
keeps at her own home.

• SUMMARY:
  Newspaper clippings from July 20, 1923 report Miss Joan Procter/Procter’s appointment as Curator of Reptiles at the Zoo, outlining her lifelong interest in reptiles and her keeping of snakes, a crocodile, lizards, and axolotls. Articles also note her work at the British Museum, experiments transforming axolotls, and Mr. E. G. Boulenger’s move to oversee the new aquarium at the Mappin Terraces.

CONTENT:
THE EVENING STANDARD
Friday, July 20, 1923.

JOAN & HER QUEER
PALS.

BOA CONSTRICTOR & CROCODILE
AS PLAYMATES.

YOUNG ZOO CURATOR.

TRANSFORMATION FROM WATER
TO LAND CREATURE.

Miss Joan Proctor, the young girl who has
been appointed curator of reptiles at the Zoo,
is somewhat shy to talk about her life work,
which has been the study of creatures from
which the average person turns with a
shudder.

A slightly built, smiling girl, with a pleasant
expression, she was busily engaged to-day in the
new aquarium in course of construction at the
Zoo.

It was with reluctance that she admitted her
identity. Asked when
she began to be inte-
rested in snakes, she re-
plied:

"I never did begin.
I have always been inte-
rested in them. I have
worked among them
since the time I left
school. I have been at
the Natural History
Museum so far, and I
aim coming to my new
post here in November.

Miss Joan Proctor.
"Yes, I have kept a
great many pets of all
sorts" she continued.
"Which is the most
unusual? Oh, they are
all considered unusual. Among them was a boa
constrictor. It is in the reptile house now—
five feet long, and perfectly tame. I kept
it at home and usually had it loose. It was
shut up only at night. Of course, I did not
allow it to be about in the same room with
the cat. It would have eaten pussy.

"I have also had a crocodile, an alligator, and
all sorts of snakes and lizards. I have never
had the slightest trouble with them. They were
all great pets and quite tame."

When asked if she had trained any of her
peculiar pets to do tricks, Miss Proctor merely
smiled and said she did not want anything
theatrical to be said about her and her pets.

She thinks, however, that the reptile house is
one of the most popular places in the Zoo, es-
pecially with children.

"Children," she said, "are not afraid of the
reptiles."

Transformation.

Miss Proctor's own collection of animals, it
may be added, is a considerable one. The croco-
dile to which she referred was her playmate
when she was quite a little girl of seven years
old. It, however, only lived two years.

To see her making friends with a Brazilian
house snake, which is one of her favourites at
present, would scare the ordinary girl. A small
python is also one of her present possessions,
and she has a number of lizards.

Recently she succeeded with certain experi-
ments in regard to axolotls. She managed
to change the habits of one of them by scientifi-
cally reducing his allowance of water, and
transformed it from a water creature to a land
creature.

FRIDAY, The Daily Mail JULY 20, 1923.

WOMAN'S REPTILE
PETS.

SNAKES, LIZARDS, AND
A TOAD.

Miss Joan B. Procter, F.Z.S., who has
been appointed Curator of Reptiles to the
London Zoological Gardens, has been in-
terested in such creatures since she was
seven years old.

At that age she had a crocodile as a pet,
which she cared for during its two years
of life. At present Miss Procter is carry-
ing on the work of the Reptile Depart-
ment of the British Museum, but she by
no means confines her observations to
preserved specimens.

Her present collection of living reptiles
includes a Brazilian house snake, which
is very keen on being handled and petted.
These benevolent serpents are used in-
stead of cats in some parts of South
America, and are most effective in keep-
ing a place clear of rats and mice. Miss
Procter has also some axolotls, and in
the past has succeeded in transforming
one of them from a water-creature to a
land salamander by scientifically reduc-
ing its allowance of water. Prof. Hux-
ley's thyroid-gland experiments pro-
duced the same results.

Some lizards and a small python are
also included in her collection, while at
the British Museum she has a fire-bellied
toad which she has owned for the past 10
years.

Miss Procter is succeeding Mr. E. G.
Boulenger, F.Z.S., at the Zoo's Reptile
House in the autumn. Mr. Boulenger is
in charge of the £50,000 aquarium which
is now being constructed under the Map-
pin Terraces at the Zoo.

For
DURRANT'S PRESS CUTTINGS,

St. Andrew's House, 32 to 34 Holborn Viaduct,
and 3 St. Andrew Street Holborn Circus, E.C. 1.
TELEPHONE

• CITY 4963.

The Westminster Gazette
104 Shoe Lane, E.C.1.

Cutting from issue dated 20 JUL 1923

WOMAN CURATOR.

Miss Proctor is to be Curator of Rep-
tiles at the Zoo in succession to Mr.
Boulenger, who becomes Curator of the
new Aquarium now in process of comple-
tion.

Miss Proctor, educated at St. Paul's
School for Girls, has worked in the Rep-
tile Department of the British Museum
since 1916, and was at one time Mr.
Boulenger's assistant,

SUMMARY:
Newspaper clippings from July 1923 announce Miss Joan Procter/Procter’s appointment as Curator of Reptiles at the London Zoo, succeeding Mr. E. G. Boulenger, and note her work at the British Museum, education at St. Paul’s School for Girls, and private snake collection. One clipping also highlights other women’s milestones, including Miss M. O. Collins, Miss Margaret Kidd, and Miss Helena Normanton.

CONTENT:
M Miss Proctor No.

From The General Press Cutting
Association. Ltd.
ATLANTIC HOUSE,
45-50, HOLBORN VIADUCT, E.C. 1.
TELEPHONE: HOLBORN 4815.

Cutting from the Sheffield Independent
Address of Publication
Issue dated.

20. 7. 23

Woman Who Likes Snakes.
One of the most remarkable positions as
yet taken up by a woman must be that of
Curator of Reptiles at the London Zoologi-
cal Gardens, a post to which Miss Joan
Proctor, F.Z.S., F.L.S., has recently been
appointed. She has worked in the Rep-
tile Department at the British Museum
for a number of years, and has a private
collection of living snakes. Another
woman has entered the ministry, the con-
gregation of the North Bow Congrega-
tional Church having invited Miss M. O.
Collins to become their minister, while a
Scottish lady, Miss Margaret Kidd, has
just been admitted a member of the
Faculty of Advocates at Edinburgh. Miss
Helena Normanton, in wig and gown, was
this week the first woman barrister to
take her seat among counsel at the Old
Bailey.

Cutting from the Yorkshire Post
Address of Publication
Issue dated.
19 7 23

Woman Curator of Reptiles.
Miss Joan B. Procter, F.Z.S., F.L.S., has
been appointed Curator of Reptiles at the
London "Zoo," to succeed Mr. E. G. Boulenger,
who becomes director of the new Aquarium.
Since 1916 she has worked in the Reptile De-
partment at the British Museum, first as volun-
tary assistant to Dr. Boulenger, and, since his
retirement, in charge.
She is the author of a large number of papers
on the anatomy, classification, and habits of
reptiles and batrachians, and for many years has
kept a private collection of living snakes and
batrachians. At present Miss Procter is still
carrying on the work of the Reptile Department
at the Museum, but is also engaged in design-
ing the rockwork for the aquarium tanks at the
Zoo.

Cutting from the Daily Chronicle
Address of Publication
Issue dated.

20. 7. 23

WOMAN AS CURATOR
OF REPTILES.
Miss J. Proctor's Appointment
at the London Zoo.
Miss Joan Proctor, F.Z.S., F.L.S.,
will take up in November the position
of curator of reptiles at the Zoo, in
place of Mr. F. G. Boulenger, who is
to become director of the new
aquarium.
Miss Proctor, who was educated at
St. Paul's School for Girls, worked for
some years with Dr. G. A. Boulenger.
The newly appointed curator told a
"Daily Chronicle" representative last
night that she has been interested in
reptiles and frogs since her school days,
and keeps her own collection now in
tanks in her Kensington home.

Cutting from the Press Journal Aberdeen
Address of Publication
Issue dated.

20. 7. 23

Lady's Collection of Snakes.
The "Times" announces that Mr. E. G.
Boulenger, at present curator of reptiles
at the Zoological Gardens, has been ap-
pointed director of the New Aquarium. Miss
Joan B. Proctor, F.Z.S., F.L.S., who has
been appointed as his successor, will assume
her duties in the late autumn.
Miss Proctor was educated at St Paul's
School for Girls, and since 1916 has worked
in the reptile department at the British
Museum, first as a voluntary assistant to Dr
Boulenger, and since his retirement, in
charge. She is the author of a large num-
ber of papers on the Anatomy, Classifica-
tion, and Habits of Reptiles and Batrach-
ians, and for many years has kept a private
collection of living snakes and batrachians.
At present Miss Procter is still carrying
on the work of the reptile department at
the museum, but is also engaged in design-
ing the rockwork for the aquarium tanks
at the Zoo.

Cutting from the Westminster Gazette
Address of Publication
Issue dated.

20. 7. 23

WOMAN CURATOR.
Miss Proctor is to be Curator of Rep-
tiles at the Zoo in succession to Mr.
Boulenger, who becomes Curator of the
new Aquarium now in process of comple-
tion.
Miss Proctor, educated at St. Paul's
School for Girls, has worked in the Rep-
tile Department of the British Museum
since 1916, and was at one time Mr.
Boulenger's assistant,

SUMMARY:
Clippings report Miss Cheesman’s forthcoming 20,000-mile Pacific research voyage and her work at the London Zoo, alongside coverage of Miss Joan Proctor’s appointment as curator of reptiles. Additional articles highlight British women pioneers in various technical and scientific professions.

CONTENT:
Cutting from the Glasgow Herald
Address of Publication
Issue dated. 20/10/25

WOMEN'S TOPICS

INSECT LOVERS
Woman Curator's 20,000-Mile Voyage
Women In America are much interested in
the fact that Miss Cheesman, the woman
Curator of Insects at the London Zoo, sails
on October 23 in the yacht St. George on a
journey of more than 20,000 miles through
the South Seas and the Pacific Ocean.

She is the only woman member of a party
of eight zoologists sent out by the Scientific
Expeditionary Research Association, and will
be absent many months. Up to the time of
writing Miss Cheesman has successfully
eluded press photographers, one of whom lay
in wait for her for three hours. She will
not talk about herself, but I knew long ago
of her post at the Zoo, which she has held
for ten years, and of her lectures in the
Insect House, which are so entrancing to
young people. She hopes not only to bring
back some interesting specimens but to solve
some problems of value of entomology by
following the great circle of the Pacific trade
winds. If you look at a wind map of the
world you will note the flow of steady winds
to the north-west from Ecuador and the
corresponding return sweep to South America
across the southern portion of the Pacific.

Winged Emigrants
Miss Cheesman points out that Insects
must migrate down these great wind-paths,
blowing to leeward from one island, to the
next. Those winged emigrants who are
lucky enough to make port often find them-
selves in enormously different surroundings,
and have to adapt themselves to the new
conditions. How have they succeeded, and
what physical changes have these winged
emigrants undergone?

Miss Cheesman has a most happy genius
for handling even the most fearsome insects.
She picks up poisonous bird-eating spiders,
maintaining that they are intelligent enough
not to injure a friend. And somehow she is
right, and seldom gets bitten.

Handling Snakes Without Gloves
In this way she is like her new colleague
at the Zoo, Miss Joan Proctor, who was
recently appointed curator of reptiles, and
who will handle horrible snakes without
gloves and without a shudder. American
women find this marvellous, as, indeed, no
does the ordinary woman, but I may state
for the first time in Great Britain that Miss
Proctor resisted the attraction of a high
salary in New York in order to remain in
England.

Had I to decide between caring for snakes
or insects, I know which I would choose,
though the average woman would rather
study insects in theory than in practice.
We have in England even one or two women
"Insect artists," who specialise in
meticulous pen-and-ink drawings of the
structure of insects, mainly for bookplate
illustration in scientific works. Sometimes
these are coloured, sometimes not, but the
illustration has to be scientifically correct,
and therefore must be done by one who is
an entomologist as well as an artist.

Cutting from the Daily Herald
Address of Publication
Issue dated 25.10.22.

THE FAMILY HERALD AND WEEKLY STAR,
MONTREAL, CANADA,
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1923.

BRITISH WOMEN
AS PIONEERS.

Engineers, Plantation
Manager and Diver.

RESEARCH CRUISE.

Are British women more or less enter-
prising than their American cousins?
As reported in the "Daily Chronicle"
recently, eight American women claim
to hold positions never before occupied
by members of their sex. Now a woman
correspondent names nine English-
women prominent in industry and the
professions, some of them pioneers.

Miss F. Wakefield, an Englishwoman
chiropractor, is the first and only woman
pioneer of this new science in London.
She is trained in a scientific method of
adjusting the cause of disease without
drugs or instruments, based on a cor-
rect knowledge of anatomy, and espe-
cially the nervous system.

Another Miss Wakefield, a mycolo-
gist, is in charge of the Mycological
Department at Kew (mycology is the
study of fungi). She had a similar posi-
tion in Barbados before coming to
London.

FIRST ELECTRICIAN.
The first woman electrical engineer to
set up her own business in Exeter less
than two years ago, Miss Margaret Part-
ridge, has now taken a partner, Miss
Lees, who is in charge of the London
office of M. Partridge and Co., recently
opened.

Miss Griff, another woman engineer,
who initiated the Stainless and Non-
Corrosive Metal Co., of Birmingham,
has also taken a partner, Miss Davis,
and runs a foundry.

Miss Margaret Naylor is the only
British woman diver, and is famed
for her intrepid operations at Tober-
mory Bay, where the Spanish trea-
sure galleon lies.

The only British woman who owns
and manages a cocoa-nut plantation is
Miss Hamill Smith, Tobago, near Trini-
dad.

A research journey through the
Pacific has been undertaken by Miss
Cheesman, curator of insects at the
London Zoo. Her colleague, Miss Proc-
tor, is curator of reptiles.

An out-of-the-way occupation has
been chosen by Miss Gertrude Rosen-
berg, who breeds butterflies for sale to
schoolboys and other collectors.

Expert On Snakes

Miss Joan Proctor, an English girl of 25,
has just been appointed curator of reptiles
at the London Zoological Gardens. She is
one of the best known experts on snakes
in the world.