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.