SUMMARY:
Press clippings announce that Miss Joan Procter, aged 25, has been appointed Curator of Reptiles at the London Zoo. Articles describe her background, training under Dr. Boulenger, early expertise with reptiles, and recognition by scientific societies.
CONTENT:
THE "DAILY EXPRESS"
LONDON, FRIDAY, JULY 20, 1923.
GIRL SNAKE EXPERT.
APPOINTED TO RULE THE ZOO REPTILES.
25 YEARS OLD.
INHERITED POWER TO CHARM.
MISS JOAN PROCTER, F.Z.S., F.L.S., an Englishwoman of twenty-five, has been appointed curator of reptiles at the Zoo. She will have complete charge of dozens of venomous cobras, deadly pythons, boa constrictors, alligators, and crocodiles.
Miss Procter, unknown to the world at large, is famous among
Mrs. Procter opened a glass cage in her drawing-room, and six beautiful Brazilian snakes, which were sent to her daughter as a gift, were brought out. She allowed them to climb and wriggle and coil round her arm.
"At the age of ten my daughter had her first snake as a pet," Mrs. Procter added. "She also kept many lizards, some of them remarkably tame. One day she received a large and valuable crocodile as a present, and we took it
to Dr. C. A. Boulenger, the famous chief of the department of reptiles at the Natural History Museum at South Kensington.
"He was astonished at my daughter's knowledge of ophiology, and offered to train her in the subject when she left St. Paul's School. She became his assistant when she was eighteen, and when he resigned she was appointed to his post."
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 collected the poisonous creatures from their hiding places.
She read her first paper, on the pit snake, before the Zoological Society at the age of nineteen. She was made a Fellow of the society at twenty. She was elected a Fellow of the Linnæan Society, one of the foremost scientific organisations in the world, a fortnight ago. She is also a Fellow of the Zoological Society of Bombay, and last year was offered a remunerative post by the Zoological Society of New York.
MISS JOAN PROCTER.
"Daily Express" photograph.
zoologists 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 deadly snakes, some bottled and some alive.
"Her interest in the subject is probably hereditary," said her mother to a "Daily Express" representative yesterday. Her grandfather was a famous entomologist."
(AMATEUR GEOLOGIST)
DAILY CHRONICLE.
FRIDAY, JULY 20. 1923.
WOMAN AS CURATOR OF REPTILES.
Miss J. Procter'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.
CURATOR OF REPTILES.
Miss Joan B. Procter, F.Z.S., F.L.S., has been appointed Curator of Reptiles at the Zoo.
-(Daily Sketch.)
