So far I have covered the books on keeping amphibians and reptiles that were published in the first two-thirds or so of the 20th Century. More general books also covered this topic. I noted in a post on David Le Roi that he incorporated in his book three diagrams on how to build a vivarium from Household Encyclopaedia, a publication on which he worked in 1950-51. Information on how to keep reptiles and amphibians was included in the book by Margaret Shaw and James Fisher that was fatuously titled Animals as Friends and How to Keep Them. It was first published (by J.M. Dent & Sons, London) in 1939, revised in 1952 and again in 1953; the reprint I have is dated 1957. Shaw and Fisher worked together at the London Zoo in the 1930s and were frequent contributors to Zoo (later retitled Zoo & Animal) magazine, on which there will be more information later. Much of the information was gathered from the keepers at the zoo and, as an aside, show diagrams of cages that were used in the old Rodent House, that were actually ideal for keeping such mammals.
This is a photograph of Margaret Shaw I found in Animal and Zoo Magazine (December 1938 issue):
I have found no other information on Margaret Shaw.
The other book to which I should draw attention is the general one by Maxwell Knight, Pets Usual and Unusual, first published by Routledge and Kegan Paul, London) in 1953. I have already described his book devoted to reptiles, amphibians and aquaria.
The chapters on herpetology from both of these books can be found in on the Downloads page.
Reptiles, Amphibians and Birds: A Historical Perspective of their Care in Captivity 