BARBARA YORK MAIN

WA Museum Records and Supplements | Updated 9 years ago

Introduction: 'Lady of the Spiders' is the title of a television film made by the BBC and ABC Natural History Film Unit in 1980. But the first I was aware of the lady was in 1947 when told that a student in the University Women's College kept spiders in her room, not the sort of activity generally associated with young ladies, even university students. Why and for how long had she had this obsession with spiders? Why had a country girl of the 1940s come to the University to study zoology? Remember it was a time when the University Visitor, the Lieutenant Governor, in his annual speech to the graduation ceremony told women graduands they should stay at home to reproduce and care for their husbands and families.