The Spider Lady: Nan Songer and Her Arachnid World War II Army

This biography recounts how Nan Songer turned a lifelong interest in bugs into work with spider silk during World War II. In her California home, she collected and bred spiders while studying ways to harvest their silk for military precision instruments. Through repeated experiments, she learned which silk was most useful and developed methods for extracting it without harming the spiders. Her research included black widows and supplied fine silk for items such as gunsights and periscopes.