Showing 6968 results

SUMMARY:
Press clippings announce Miss Joan B. Procter's appointment as Curator of Reptiles at the Zoological Gardens/London Zoological Gardens, noting her work at the British Museum and her private reptile collections. Articles reference Mr. E. G. Boulenger, Dr. Boulenger, Prof. Huxley, and the new aquarium under the Mappin Terraces.

CONTENT:
Miss Procter
No.
From The General Press Cutting
Association, Ltd.
ATLANTIC HOUSE,
45-50, HOLBORN VIADUCT, E.C. 1.
TELEPHONE HOLBORN 4815.
Cutting from the Illustrated London News
Address of Publication
Issue dated 28. 4. 23

Miss Joan Procter, F.Z.S., F.L.S., who is to be Curator of Reptiles at the "Zoo,"
is already known to readers of "The Illustrated London News" through her
work on the tanks for the new Aquarium, illustrations of which were given in
our issue of July 14 last. She is twenty-five.

THE ZOO'S NEW CURATOR OF
REPTILES: MISS JOAN PROCTER.

Cutting from the Times Weekly Edition
Address of Publication
Issue dated 26. 4. 23
A Woman Zoologist.

The position of Curator of Reptiles at the
Zoological Gardens would not appear, at first
sight, to be one likely to appeal to a woman,
but Miss Joan B. Procter, F.Z.S., F.L.S., who
has been appointed to succeed Mr. E. G.
Boulenger in that office, is a recognized autho-
rity on the subject. She has worked in the
Reptile Department at the British Museum
since 1916, 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 designing the rockwork for
the aquarium tanks at the Zoo. Mr.
Boulenger has been appointed Director of the
new aquarium which is under construction.
He has made the reptile collection at the Zoo
one of the finest in the world.

Cutting from the Camberwell & Peckham Times
Address of Publication
Issue dated 28 / 4 / 23

Miss Joan Procter, a young lady of 23
years, who is entitled to write goodness only
knows how many initials after her name, has
been appointed curator of reptiles at the Zoo.
Her charges will include cobras, pythons, boa
constrictors, alligators and crocodiles. We
don't know that we should care about the
job. But then, woman always was a charmer.
Even man, the most deadly of reptiles, suc-
cumbs to her charms.

Cutting from the Daily Mail
Address of Publication
Issue dated 28. 7. 23
GIRL SNAKE EXPERT.
TO TAKE CHARGE OF ZOO
REPTILES.

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 rep-
tiles includes a Brazilian house snake,
which is very keen on being handled and
petted. These bene-
volent serpents are
used instead of
cats in some parts
of South America,
and are most effec-
tive in keeping a
place clear of rats
and mice. Miss
Procter has also
some axolotyls, and
in the past has
succeeded in trans-
forming one of
them from a water-
creature to a land
salamander by
scientifically reduc-
ing its allowance
of water. Prof. Huxley's thyroid-gland
experiments produced the same re-
sults.
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, who is 25, 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 con-
structed under the Mappin Terraces at
the Zoo.

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.

SUMMARY:
International newspaper clippings from 1923 report Miss Joan Procter's appointment as Curator of Reptiles at the London Zoological Gardens, noting her expertise, early career, and work on the new aquarium. Articles also mention related appointments of E. G. Boulenger and her training under Dr. C. A. Boulenger.

CONTENT:
Telephone No. Central 7989.
International Press-Cutting Bureau
14, New Bridge Street, London, E.C. 4.

Extract from
NEW YORK WORLD
NEW YORK.
19 August. 1923.
Her Specialty Is Snakes.
MISS JOAN PROCTOR, a London
girl, has a job which few women,
and few men for that matter,
would care to hold except in the most dis-
tinct of purely honorary capacities. She
has just been elected curator of reptiles
at the famous London Zoo, after refusing
a cabled offer of a similar position at our
own Bronx Zoo at a much higher salary.
Miss Proctor is only 25 years old, but
is recognized as one of the greatest liv-
ing authorities on serpents. Her reputa-
tion indeed is already worldwide among
naturalists.

Joan Proctor.
She will not only have charge of all the
reptiles in the great collection in London,
but she will also have complete charge of
the new aquarium and its denizens. In
fact she has been responsible for the de-
signing and construction of this zoolog-
ical watering place.

Miss Proctor's grandfather was a fa-
mous entomologist, and she herself has
kept lizards and snakes as pets since her
tenth birthday. When in her very early
'teens she astonished the chief of the
reptile department of the South Kensing-
ton Museum by her knowledge of ophi-
ology and when she was only 18 she
succeeded to his post on his resignation.
At 19 she read her first paper before the
Zoological Society and later was elected
a fellow of the Linnæan Society, one of
the foremost scientific organizations in
the world.

Apparently failing to see enough of
snakes at the Zoo she keeps six Brazilian
reptiles in a glass cage in her drawing
room. They were sent to her as a gift,
for noted scientists in South America
and South Africa, knowing her interest,
frequently send deadly serpents to Eng-
land for her, and she keeps most of them
in her own home.

International Press-Cutting Bureau.
Extract from
NEW YORK HERALD.
New York, U.S.A.
Date 29 JUL 1923
LONDON NAMES WOMAN
CURATOR OF REPTILES
Miss Joan Procter One of
World's Leading Experts.

Special Cable to The New York Herald.
Copyright, 1923, by The New York Herald.
New York Herald Bureau.
London, July 28.
Miss Joan Procter, regarded by zoolo-
gists as one of the greatest snake ex-
perts in the world, has been appointed
curator of reptiles for the London Zoo.
It is the first time that a woman has
been appointed to a place of such re-
sponsibility at the Zoo. Miss Procter,
although only 25 years old, has for
some time shown conspicuous ability in
her chosen profession. Her grandfather
was a great entomologist.

Her mother, speaking of Miss Proc-
ter's work, said: "At 10 my daughter
had her first snake as a pet. She also
kept many lizards and some of them
were remarkably tame. One day she
received a large crocodile as a present,
and we took it to Dr. C. A. Boulenger,
famous chief of the department of rep-
tiles at the Natural History Museum
in South Kensington. He was aston-
ished 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 15 years old, and when he re-
signed she was appointed to his post."
Miss Procter read her first paper on
snakes before the Zoological Society at
the age of 19. She was a fellow of the
society at 20 and was elected a fellow
of the Linnaean Society, one of the fore-
most scientific organizations in the
world only a fortnight ago. Last year,
it is said, she was offered a post by
the New York Zoological Society.

Extract from
THE FRIEND
BLOEMFONTIEN.
Date Sep 1st

Miss Joan Procter, an English
girl, aged 25, has been appointed
curator of reptiles at the London
Zoological Gardens. Her grand-
father was a famous entomo-
logist. Miss Procter had her
first pet snake when she was
aged 10. One day she received a
crocodile as a present, and took
it to Dr. Boulenger, head of the
department for reptiles in the
National History Museum, South
Kensington. He was astonished
at her knowledge, and offered to
train her. She became Dr.
Boulenger's assistant when 15,
and is now one of the greatest
snake experts in the world, and
is a Fellow of the Zoological and
Linnean Societies.

Extract from
CHARLOTTETOWN GUARDIAN
Charlottetown, Canada.
Date
WOMAN CURATOR
OF ZOO REPTILES

LONDON, Aug. 15.—Mr. E. G.
Boulenger, at present Curator of
Reptiles at the Zoological Gardens,
has been appointed Director of the
new Aquarium. He will continue to
exercise a general supervision 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 an-
ticipated that his time will be al-
most completely engaged by his
new duties. Mr. Boulenger has been
Curator at the Zoo, F.R.S., for long
chief of the Department of Reptiles,
Batrachians and Fishes at the Brit-
ish Museum of Natural History.
Since Mr. Boulenger has been Cur-
ator 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. Proctor, 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 Rep-
tile Department at the British Mu-
seum, first as voluntary assistant
to Dr. Boulenger and, since his re-
tirement, in charge. She is the au-
thor of a large number of papers on
the anatomy, classification, and
habits of reptiles and batrachians,
and for many years has kept a pri-
vate collection of living snakes and
batrachians. At present Miss Proc-
tor is still carrying on the work of
the Reptile Department at the Mu-
seum, but is also engaged in de-
signing the rockwork for the aqu-
arium tanks at the Zoo.

MADRAS MAIL.
MADRAS.
14 AUG 1923
THE WAY OF THE
WORLD

Miss Joan B. Proctor, F.Z.S., F.L.S., has
been appointed Curator
Woman Zoo of Reptiles at the London
Curator Zoological Gardens, and
will assume her duties in
the 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 retire-
ment, 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 batra-
chians. At present Miss Proctor is still
carrying on the work of the Reptile
Department at the Museum, but is also
engaged in designing the rockwork for the
aquarium tanks at the Zoo.

SUMMARY:
Newspaper clippings (1921–1927) report Miss Joan Procter (also styled Miss Joan B. Procter/Miss Joan Proctor) being appointed Curator of Reptiles at the Zoo/Zoological Gardens, London, noting her reputation as a leading snake expert. One notice states Mr. E. G. Boulenger will direct the new aquarium, with references to institutions in South Kensington and Bombay.

CONTENT:
Cutting from the Leeds Mercury
Address of Publication
Issue dated 21.4.23

THE ZOO GIRL SNAKE EXPERT.

Miss Joan Procter, who has been
appointed curator of the reptile
section at the Zoo. Though she is
only twenty-five, she is acknow-
ledged to be one of the greatest
snake experts in the world.

Cutting from the Bristol Evening News
Address of Publication
Issue dated 20.7.21.

THE GIRL-SNAKE EXPERT.

Our London correspondent telegraphs:
The sphere of women's activity widens
daily, and this morning we have news of a
girl snake expert being appointed to take
charge of reptiles.
It sounds a job for which there will be
little feminine competition. Miss Joan
Proctor's childhood care of snakes as pets
has brought reward in her present appoint-
ment.

Cutting from the Evening Dispatch
Address of Publication / Edinburgh
Issue dated 27.7.27

Girl Snake Expert at the Zoo.
Miss Joan Proctor, F.Z.S., F.L.S., has been
appointed Curator of Reptiles at the Zoological
Gardens, London. Miss Proctor, who is 25 years
of age, is an acknowledged expert on snakes.

Eve and the Serpents.
AT the Zoo in London a girl has been
appointed curator of reptiles. This
unusual course has been adopted because
the lady, Miss Joan Procter, F.Z.S., F.L.S.,
is one of the leading authorities on these
rather terrifying creatures. Ever since
she was a tiny child Miss Procter has
been fond of reptiles, and her list of pets were
of a nature to terrify the average person. She
read every book that dealt with snakes and
lizards, so that when she came in contact with
men who made a life study of reptiles they were
amazed at her knowledge. She adopted her
present career on leaving school. Miss Joan
Procter's fame has penetrated over the world.
The Zoological Society of Bombay made her a
Fellow, and American experts held her in high
regard. She is also one of the experts at the
Museum of Natural History at South Kensing-
ton, and loves and fondles dangerous serpents
as an average woman would pet kittens and
puppies.

Cutting from the Christian World
Address of Publication
Issue dated 26.7.27

Miss Joan B. Procter, F.Z.S., F.L.S., has
been appointed Curator of Reptiles at the
Zoo in place of Mr. E. G. Boulenger, who
is to take up duties as director of the new
aquarium. Miss Procter has for several
years been a worker in the Reptile Depart-
ment at the British Museum.