Grace Olive Wiley
Fearless
Kimberly McReynolds
Grace Olive Koontz was born 18th February 1883 in Chanute, Kansas. Grace was the youngest of three siblings born to parents William Harrison Koontz (1858-1890) and Mary Ann Donaldson (1861-1951). In 1900 at aged 17, Grace married Bert Leon Wiley (1880-1959), but this marriage was short lived (FamilySearch, 2020).
Before the turn of the 20th century, it was uncommon for a woman to pursue a career in the sciences and it was even rarer for a woman to hold a position of seniority (Schiebinger, 1987). However, Grace attended the University of Kansas and was awarded a bachelor of entomology (the study of insects). Shortly after graduating, Grace earned a research position at the same university and travelled around Texas with her husband, collecting and researching insects.
Grace’s career as an entomologist was brief but successful (Fisher, 2014). Grace collected numerous holotypes including the stunning native American bee Exomalopis ignota, (Timberlake, 1980), and in 1923, Grace described a new species of water strider from Texas, Rhumatobates hungerfordi, named after her professor H.B. Hungerford (Wiley, 1923).
It is unclear as to when Grace and Burt separated, but after their separation, Grace left the field of entomology and commenced researching in the field of herpetology after observing rattlesnakes in Texas during fieldwork (Timberlake, 1980; Valenzuela, 2014).
Only a handful of women held curatorial positions in zoos during the 1920’s, including Evelyn Cheesman and Joan Proctor who both holding positions at the London Zoo. In 1923, Grace moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota to commence a new job as the curator of the Minneapolis Public library’s Natural History Museum, which housed a collection of live reptiles (Dickenson, 1948). Grace is credited with being America’s first female zoo curator.
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Photo credit: FaceBook: Grace Olive Wiley
Whilst at the Minneapolis Natural History Museum, Grace enriched the husbandry management of the reptiles with improved conditions, and also increased the longevity of the animals (Dickinson, 1948). However, Grace’s greatest achievement was her work with rattlesnakes. Previously, herpetologists struggled to raise and breed diamondbacks in captivity and information on their reproductive biology was lacking. Grace cared for several Texas diamondbacks, Crotalus atrox, and during her first year on the job, she managed to mate two snakes. Five months later, the female gave birth to 8 young via ovoviviparity (producing young by means of eggs which are hatched within the body of the parent) (Duncan, 1945).
Grace began using motion pictures to film snake behaviours and was the first to record a western diamondback during ecdysis (skin sloughing). This film was subsequently used to describe the process in Laurence Klauber’s 1956 book, "Rattlesnakes: their habits, life histories and influence on mankind". She also documented the conditions under which rattlesnakes lose the segments of their rattles (McNeill, 2019).
Whilst demonstrating with a rattlesnake to a member of the public at the library, the snake slithered across Grace’s hand. Grace was astounded that the snake did not strike or try to bite, and it was during this pivotal moment that Grace contemplated the idea that snakes could be tamed. She began forming her own private collection of venomous reptiles and would caress the snakes with a padded stick. After a period of time the snakes would become desensitised to touch, after which she would then progress to touching the snakes with her fingers (McNeill, 2019). Grace even managed to “tame” a king cobra (Dickinson, 1948). However, this experiment didn’t come without risk. Grace was bitten several times by venomous snakes, including a nearly lethal bite from a diamondback rattlesnake. Nevertheless, Grace always took the blame for the bite (Cochran, 2008).
Photo credit: The Zoo Review
“When first taken captive most wild creatures are quite terrified and panicky. This was true of the rattlesnake that bit me and yet on my return from the hospital this same nervous fellow was tamed without any trouble. It was done in two weeks, with only one hand!”
-Grace Olive Wiley in 1930
On 29th January 1927, Grace contacted John J. McCutcheon, president of the Brookfield Zoo’s Zoological society to apply for the position of curator of reptiles. However, her application was declined. On 29th May 1933, Grace applied for the position again. However, this time she proposed to donate her extensive collection of reptiles that totalled 115 species and 330 individuals along with several enclosures. This offer was clearly very irresistible and Grace was given the position (Murphy & Jacques, 2005). The zoo was required to build a bigger reptile house to harbour the extensive new collection (McNeill, 2019).
Reptile House at Chicago Zoological Park (Brookfield Zoo), 1934.
Photo credit: The Minneapolis Sunday Tribune; George Rabb, Chicago Zoological Society.
Unfortunately, Grace only held the position for two years and it was pervaded in controversy. Grace would allow snakes to freely roam her office where she would free handle highly venomous snakes including rattlesnakes, red bellied black snakes, tiger snakes, king cobras, Egyptian cobras, pit vipers and mambas. This conduct made her colleagues very uncomfortable, and Grace’s supervisors ordered her to cease handling the snakes, but she refused (Murphy & Jacques, 2005).
During Grace’s employment at the zoo, 19 snakes escaped including a bandy-bandy, sand snakes and three Egyptian cobras. Most of the snakes were recovered, with a cobra found coiled in the corner of the reptile house (Murphy & Jacques, 2005). However, the bandy-bandy caused a major disruption to the city with police urging parents to keep children inside whilst they searched the streets for the snake (McNeill, 2019). Eventually the bandy-bandy was found on the zoo grounds by a shocked zoo keeper who reached inside a bag of leaves. It is highly amusing that a harmless Australian bandy-bandy caused more of a stir in the city than the escape of three Egyptian cobras.
Ultimately, in 1935, Grace was fired from the zoo by the acting director Robert Bean on the grounds that due to her reckless behaviour, the zoo’s public liability insurance was higher than her annual wage. However, Grace did not feel responsible for the escapes (Murphy & Jacques, 2005). She was later interviewed for an article in time magazine where she was quoted as saying:
“I do not feel I was guilty of carelessness.
I just forgot, simply forgot, to close the door to the cobra’s cage after I cleaned it”.
After her departure from Brookfield zoo, Grace travelled the eastern states of America, showcasing her live reptiles and her motion pictures (Dickinson, 1948). In addition to her lecture tour, Grace rented the use of her king cobras to the film industry. The first movie Grace’s king cobras starred in was the 1938 film, Trade Winds (Murphy & Jacques, 2006) and then in the 1944 film Cobra Woman and the Tarzan films (Valenzuela, 2014). Grace also personally featured as a snake charmer in the 1940 film Moon over Burma (Murphy & Jacques, 2006).
In 1937, Grace and her mother, along with the extensive collection of reptiles including a two-headed snapping turtle, moved to Long Beach,
California (Dickinson, 1948). Grace established a road-side zoo named “Grace Wiley- Reptiles” where she would allow the venomous snakes, accompanied by several crocodiles and alligators to freely roam the grounds. Participants, including children, could handle a venomous
snake or have their photograph taken at a cost of 25 cents (Murphy & Jacques, 2005: Valenzuela, 2014; Fisher, 2014).
During the early 1940’s, Grace’s long-term friend Wesley H. Dickinson who was an officer in the U.S army, was stationed in India. Wesley would catch and ship snakes to the U.S for Grace to add to her collection including numerous Indian cobras, king cobras, Russell’s vipers and kraits. By the beginning of 1944, Grace's collection was ever-expanding, and she had received numerous complaints from neighbours about the roaming reptiles (Fisher, 2014). Grace decided she wanted a more permanent zoological park so she packed up her collection and moved to Cypress, California. Grace had requested the city donate 50 acres of land so that she could extend the park, however these plans never eventuated (Murphy & Jacques, 2006).
Photo credit: Gettyimages
In early July of 1948, Grace acquired an Indian cobra, Naja naja for her captive collection. On 20th July 1948 Daniel Mannix, a journalist from Argosy magazine, visited Grace to photograph her with a snake for an article. Grace wanted to use one of her “tame” snakes but Daniel asked Grace if she would handle the new specimen as her tame snakes rarely displayed their hoods and this cobra had an unusual but distinctive “G” shaped pattern on its hood. He felt this snake would make a better photograph. Apparently Grace was reluctant as she had not yet had the time to tame this snake, but progressed with the photo anyway (Jones, 1994; Murphy & Jacques, 2006). Unfortunately, this was to be the first of many mistakes that were to occur on this day.
Photo credit: FaceBook Grace Olive Wiley
Grace suffered from near-sightedness and would usually wear glasses, but she didn’t want to wear her glasses in the photo. During the photoshoot, the snake became spooked by the flash of the camera and struck out towards Grace, but due to her not having her glasses on, she miscalculated the snake and it attached to her middle finger. (Murphy & Jacques, 2006; Valenzuela, 2014). Grace attempted to squeeze her finger to remove the venom and then proceeded to calmly instruct Daniel’s wife, Jule Mannix to ring Wesley Dickinson as she felt he would know how to handle the situation. Wesley himself had received a bite from an Indian cobra only four years prior (Murphy & Jacques, 2006).
The final blunder to this event came when her only vial of antivenin was accidentally broken shortly after the bite. As snake bite kits were expensive, Grace only had one vial to treat cobra envenomation and the syringes were over 20 years old and had corroded (Murphy & Jacques, 2005; Fisher, 2014). Wesley arrived at the zoo with an ambulance from Long Beach hospital, however Grace soon fell into a coma. Grace was transported to hospital but doctors were unable to treat the envenomation as the hospital only contained antivenin for north American snakes. Tragically, Grace died 90 minutes after the bite at the age of 65 (Murphy & Jacques, 2006; Madera tribune, 1948).
As for Grace’s beloved reptiles, Wesley approached numerous zoos with the offer to purchase the entire collection, although this offer was futile. Instead, the collection was separated and auctioned as individual specimens for a total of $3000 USD (Murphy & Jacques, 2006; Fisher, 2014). Grace’s much-loved pair of king cobras, “The King of Kings” and “Queen” were separated and sold to a Florida resident named Ross Allan and a local zoo in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Due to both the buyer's inexperience with king cobras, both snakes died within several months of purchase (Murphy & Jacques, 2006; Jones,1994). The Indian cobra with the unusual “G” marking was sold to a man from Arizona who displayed the snake at a popular tourist spot, and was given the unfortunate name “Lady-killing Cobra” (Fisher, 2014).
Some would argue that Grace’s actions were reckless and irresponsible, leading to her untimely death. However, you can’t deny that Grace made a huge contribution to herpetology. Not only with her scientific observations, but also her passion to educate the public to dispel common misconceptions with these misunderstood creatures. Unfortunately, like many extraordinary women of her time, her story has faded into the unknown. However, in 2014, a Long Beach Park situated on Plymouth Street and Elm Avenue was named “Grace Park” in her honour (Valenzuela, 2014).
References
Cochran, P.A. (2008). A cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorous) in Minnesota, and historical reports of other pit vipers unexpected in the upper Midwest. Northeastern naturalist, 15(3): 461-464
Dickenson, W.H. (1948). Grace Olive Wiley. Herpetologica. 4(5): 169-170
Duncan, V. (1945). The snake without a friend. Southwest Review, 30(2): 167-172
FamilySearch (2020). Grace Olive Wiley. Retrieved from ancestors.familysearch.org/en/L45N-9RG/grace-olive-koontz-1883-1948
Fisher, B. (2014). Female entomologist: Grace Olive Wiley (1883-1948). Retrieved from tcn.amnh.org/updates/femaleentomologistgraceolivewiley1883-1948
Jones, A. (1994). “And God laughs”. An autobiography by Arthur Jones
Klauber, L.M. (1956). Rattlesnakes: their habits, life histories and influence on mankind. Vol I. University of California Press, Berkeley; Los Angeles
Madera Tribune (1948). Cobra’s bite proves fatal to charmer. 16(11), 22 July 1948
McNeill, L. (2019). The charmed life and tragic death of snake handler Grace Olive Wiley. Retrieved from mentalfloss.com
Murphy, J.B., & Jacques, D.E. (2005). Grace Olive Wiley: zoo curator with safety issues. Herpetological Review, 36(4): 365-367
Murphy, J.B. & Jacques, D.E. (2006). Death from snake bite: The entwined histories of Grace Olive Wiley and Wesley, H. Dickinson. Bulletin of the Chicago Herpetological Society, Special supplement
Schiebinger, L. (1987). The history and philosophy of women in science: A review essay. Signs: Journal of women in culture and society, 12(2): 305-332
Timberlake, P.H. (1980). Review of North American Exomalopsis (Hymenoptera, Anthophoridae). Entomology, 86. University of California Publications.
Valenzuela, B.E. (2014). Long beach landmarks: Grace Park named after snake expert. San Bernardino Sun.
Wiley, G.O. (1923). A new species of Rheumatobates from Texas (Heteroptera, Gerridae). The Canadian Entomologist, 55(9): 202-205