Grace Olive Wiley

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Grace Olive Wiley
Brookfield Zoo

Grace Olive Wiley (February 18, 1883 – July 20, 1948) was an American herpetologist best known for her work with venomous snakes. She died of a snakebite she received while posing for a photographer at the age of 65.[1]

Background

Wiley originally worked as an entomologist at the University of Kansas, but during her mid-thirties she began collecting and observing rattlesnakes while doing field work in the Southwestern United States. Within a few years she became the first person to successfully breed rattlesnakes in captivity.[2] In 1923, she was named a curator at the Minneapolis Public Library which had an extensive collection of live reptiles and amphibians in its now-defunct natural history museum.[3]

Mission, methods, and controversy

Wiley brought much attention while working in Minneapolis, even appearing in national publications like Time and Life. At the time, it was very unusual for a woman to be a curator of reptiles,[4] and Wiley earned a reputation as a "woman without fear."[5] Taking advantage of her fame, Wiley strove to change the public's negative perception of snakes, arguing, “The fear of snakes is cultivated. We are not born with it. Children love snakes as naturally as they love dogs and cats. Don’t be afraid of a reptile’s tongue. The only animal that can hurt you with its tongue is a human.”[4]

Wiley argued that even venomous snakes were harmless if properly trained.

copperheads, and mambas with her bare hands, eschewing any special instruments like hooks or snake tongs.[6] She also left snakes' cages open for long periods of time and permitted venomous species to crawl throughout her workspace.[4]

Though Wiley did not receive any serious snakebites during her time at the Minneapolis Library,

Chicago in 1934, and she brought the library's collection of 236 reptiles and amphibians with her.[4][7] Unfortunately, her casual snake-handling methods did not endear her to zoo staff members there, either, and after she had allowed 19 snakes to escape from their cages in 1935, she was fired by zoo director Robert Bean.[8]

California years

After parting ways with Brookfield Zoo, Wiley moved to

The Jungle Book, and the Tarzan series.[9] She also operated a reptile zoo in Cypress, California, where she charged 25 cents for visitors to see her large, personal collection.[5]

On July 20, 1948, Wiley invited journalist

Daniel P. Mannix to photograph her collection. While she was posing with a venomous Indian cobra the flash from the photographer's camera spooked the snake and it lunged. She restrained it, but was bitten, and she requested to be taken to a hospital. Unfortunately, her only vial of cobra antivenom (from the Haffkine Institute) was accidentally broken[1] and the hospital had antivenom serums only for North American snakes. Wiley was pronounced dead less than two hours after being bitten.[10] Although family and friends tried to preserve her collection, it was ultimately auctioned off, and the snake that killed Wiley was subsequently displayed at an Arizona roadside attraction.[5]

Shortly before she died, Wiley's life story was adapted for a comic book (True Comics #58, 1947).[11]

Legacy

Wiley described Rheumatobates hungerfordi, a species of

water strider,[12] and is commemorated in the names of the Virgin Islands crested anole (Anolis cristatellus wileyae)[13] and the insect Cenocorixa wileyae, a water boatman.[14][15] In 2006, the city of Long Beach opened Grace Park, named after Wiley.[16][17]

Publications

Notes

  1. ^
    hdl:10088/11631
    ..
  2. ^ a b c “Deadly snakes are just pets to this woman”. Chicago Daily Tribune. April 3, 1934. p. 3.
  3. ^ "Snakelets". Time. July 31, 1933.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Ross, Andrea Friederici. Let the Lions Roar. Brookfield, Illinois: Chicago Zoological Society, 1997. p. 32.
  5. ^ a b c
    OCLC 1435759. Archived
    (PDF) from the original on 2024-01-09. Retrieved 2024-01-09.
  6. ^ Miller, Christie. “Grace Olive Wiley: Cobra Queen”. Reptile & Amphibian Magazine. March–April 1997. p. 26-30.
  7. ^ "New Zoo". Time. July 2, 1934.
  8. ^ “Snakes”. Chicago Daily Tribune. September 22, 1935. p. 18.
  9. ^ “Grace Olive Wiley”. Southeastern Hot Herp Society Archived 2008-04-09 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved on 2006-09-05.
  10. ^ “Creeping Death”. Time. August 2, 1948.
  11. ^ Reading Room Index to the Comic Art Collection Archived 2006-08-21 at the Wayback Machine. Michigan State University Libraries. Retrieved 2006-09-05.
  12. S2CID 84122177
    .
  13. ^ Gorman, George C.; Leonard Atkins; Richard Thomas (1968). "Intra-and interspecific chromosome variation in the lizard Anolis cristatellus and its closest relatives". Breviora (293): 1–13.
  14. S2CID 86445184
    .
  15. ^ Hungerford, H. B. (1948). "The Corixidae of the Western Hemisphere (Hemiptera)". The University of Kansas Science Bulletin. 32: 578–579.
  16. ^ “Grace Park Opened Officially With Ribbon Cutting”. City of Long Beach Website. Retrieved on 2006-09-05.
  17. ^ "Grace Park". www.longbeach.gov.

External links

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