Part 14 - Press clippings on Miss Joan B. Procter’s appointment as Curator of Reptiles at the London Zoo

SUMMARY:
Press cuttings report Miss Joan B. Procter’s appointment as Curator of Reptiles at the London Zoo, outlining her background at the British Museum and work on the new aquarium. Another clipping notes related staff changes, including Miss Cheeseman’s temporary replacement during a South Pacific expedition.

CONTENT:
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.

Pall Mall Gazette and Globe
25 Tudor Street, E.C.4.

Cutting from issue dated. 19 JUL 1929

CURATOR OF REPTILES.

WOMAN'S APPOINTMENT AT
THE ZOO.

Miss Joan B. Procter, F.Z.S.,
F.L.S., has been appointed Curator
of Reptiles at the Zoo, and will as-
sume 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 re-
tirement, in charge.
She is the author of a large num-
ber of papers on the anatomy, classi-
fication, and habits of reptiles and
batrachians, and for many years
(says the "Times") has kept a
private collection of living snakes and
batrachians.
At present Miss Procter is still car-
rying on the work of the Reptile De-
partment at the Museum, but is also
engaged in designing the rockwork
for the aquarium tanks at the Zoo.

25 AUG 1923

An English girl of twenty-five has been
appointed curator of reptiles at the London
Zoo. When one considers how badly
woman managed the first serpent in history,
the appointment seems a little surprising.
Cutting from the People
Address of Publication
Issue dated. 22. 7. 23

WOMAN'S SNAKE PETS.

HANDLED REPTILES FROM
CHILDHOOD.

A woman has been appointed curator
of reptiles at the Zoo and will, from
November next, be responsible for
those creeping and crawling things that
are so fascinating and attractive—be-
hind the thick glass. She is Miss Joan
B. Procter, F.Z.S., F.L.S., and is recog-
nised among scientists as one of the
foremost authorities on snakes.
As curator she will have in her care
deadly cobras, pythons and boa con-
strictors, alligators and crocodiles.
Miss Procter is taking the place of
Mr. F. G. Boulenger, who becomes the
director of the new aquarium.
Seen at the Zoo, Miss Procter was
too busy, she said, and seemed too
retiring and diffident to discuss off-
hand her special interests. She was
consulting over the rockwork of the
new aquarium now being built under
the Mappin Terraces at the Zoo.
Her grandfather was a noted au-
thority on insects, so that her own in-
terest in reptiles is probably heredi-
tary.
At her home in South Kensington she
has quite an extensive collection of
living creatures. At ten years of age
she had a pet snake, and has had
presents of six Brazilian snakes and a
crocodile.
When only nineteen she read a paper
before the Zoological Society, and was
made a Fellow the next year.
Cutting from the Yorkshire Post
Address of Publication Leeds
Issue dated. 3-9-25

Zoo's Lady Curators.

In view of her appointment on the per-
sonnel of the Scientific Expeditionary Re-
search Association's coming expedition to
the South Pacific, Miss Cheeseman, who
in 1917 became curator of insects in the
London Zoo under Professor Maxwell
Lefroy, will be temporarily withdrawn from
that position, and replaced by Mr. L. C.
Bushby, of the Royal College of Science.
Miss Cheeseman 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 build-
ing took the place of a much older one
which for many years had been specially
associated with insect life, and which stood
close to the south entrance to the Gardens.
The Society has also quite recently
appointed a lady curator of reptiles, in the
person of Miss Joan Procter, F.Z.S.,
F.L.S., who for several years has worked
in the reptile department of the British
Museum as voluntary assistant to Dr.
Boulenger, and latterly in full charge.
She is expected to take over her new duties
in the course of the coming autumn.