On the South African Theraphosidae or "Baviaan" spiders, in the collection of the South African Museum.

Dr William Frederick Purcell (1866-1919) a zoologist who joined the South African Museum in 1896 who received his D.Phil in Berlin in 1895 was also an unsuccessful applicant for the Directorship of the South African Museum in 1895 but accepted an appointment as "First Assistant" in 1896.

His father was an Irishman who settled in South Africa and his mother belonged to the Hertzog family. Although he was born in England and partly educated in Germany, Purcell's background was completely South African, and he is rightly regarded as one of the earliest South African scientists. The subject of his doctoral thesis was the Arachnida, and most of his collecting and research dealt with this group in which he was a pioneer in South Africa.