Annie Montague Alexander (29 December 1867 – 10 September 1950) was an explorer, naturalist, paleontological collector, and philanthropist.

She founded the University of California Museum of Paleontology (UCMP) and the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ). From its establishment in 1908 until she died in 1950, she financed the museum's collections and supported a series of paleontological expeditions throughout the western United States. Alexander herself took part in many of these expeditions, accumulating a significant collection of fossils and exotic game animals that she would later donate to the museum. Alexander is remembered by the University of California, Berkeley, as one of the "builders of Berkeley" and as the benefactress of the museum.

Early life

Annie Montague Alexander was born on December 29, 1867, in Honolulu. At the time, the islands were part of the Kingdom of Hawaii. She was the granddaughter of New England missionaries in Maui. Her father, Samuel Thomas Alexander, and her uncle, Henry Perrine Baldwin, founded Alexander & Baldwin. Her cousins included Henry Alexander Baldwin and Clarence Hyde Cooke, who carried on the family businesses.

She attended Punahou School for one year. In 1882, her family moved to Oakland, California, where she then enrolled in Oakland High School. This dry and arid region had been explored previously beginning in the 1870s and would prove a fruitful location for Alexander. Alexander was attended by Herbert Furlong and William Greeley, two of Merriam's students who were chosen to provide assistance and expertise for her. They planned their route from Northern California up to Fossil Lake and then headed West to Crater Lake before heading back to California. Other participants included Ernest, an African American wagon driver and cook, and a young boy named Willis. Alexander also invited her friend Mary Wilson. In 1895, Smith sent his findings to Merriam and sparked what became Merriam's intense focus on Shasta County. Alexander's role in the expedition included funding, collecting and, excavating, as well as cooking for the team. The trip was brief but they returned with three significant fossils including Shastasaurus alexandre named in honor of Alexander.

1903

thumb|213x213px|An early reconstruction of Thalattosaurus alexandrae by John C. Merriam

Little is known about this trip beyond its participants and some of its findings. Along with Alexander, the participants were Edna Wemple, Eustace Furlong, Frederick Sylvanus Ray, and Ward Benjamin Esterly. On this trip, Alexander uncovered her first significant fossil that was new to the scientific world which John C. Merriam named in her honor Thalattosaurus alexandrae. Her father died a day later on September 10 after receiving an emergency amputation. The expedition discovered many of the finest specimens of ichthyosaur. In 1905, Alexander financed and attended another expedition alongside John C. Merriam and his assistant Eustace L. Furlong. They headed 300 miles west to the West Humboldt Mountain Range located in northwestern Nevada. The expedition lasted only a few months but they returned with many of the finest specimens of ichthyosaur found at that time. During many of her expeditions, Alexander kept a scrapbook containing photos of landscapes, participants, and fossil finds. In her scrapbook from the Saurian Expedition, Annie included photos of herself and Edna Wemple documenting their work in the field.

Vancouver Island, 1910

In 1910, Alexander embarked on a trip north to British Columbia with Louise Kellogg to expand upon the research they had done in Alaska. While there, Alexander enlisted the help of a local trapper named Edward Despard who was tasked with finding mink, marten, raccoons, otters, and beavers. The goal of the museum was to provide paleontological material to researchers on campus to further their studies as well as preserve the declining environment around them for posterity as well as cultivating an interest in natural history.

In 1907, Alexander met Joseph Grinnell, a young scientist from Stanford who had already begun to make a name for himself in the field of zoology. Grinnell held this position until he died in 1939.

While waiting for the museum to open, Alexander embarked on more trips to Alaska with her new companion Louise Kellogg.

In 1909, the museum opened and needed fossils. Merriam, Furlong, Kellogg, and Alexander headed back to Humboldt County, Nevada, in search of fossils. They found wooly rhinoceroses, camels, mastodons, other mammals, lizards, and birds. She subsequently helped establish the UCMP and created an endowment for its funding. After Merriam's defection, Alexander continued to give money to the university but grew frustrated with the Regents that Merriam was allowed to exert control over her donations.

Through an anonymous donation, Alexander also established in 1920 the Folklore Foundation at Vassar College. The chair created as part of the foundation, was the first chair in folklore at any college or university in the United States. It was held by Martha Beckwith and ended on her retirement in 1938.

Taxa named for Annie M. Alexander

thumb|252x252px|Swallenia alexandrae. A rare grass species found by Alexander and Kellogg in 1942. This grass is still on the federal endangered species list.

  • Acrodus alexandre
  • Alticamelus alexandre a miocene camel
  • Anniealexandria
  • Aplodontia alexandrae named by Eustace Furlong
  • Bouvardia alexanderae
  • Eriogonum ochrocephaum var. alexandrae
  • Hydrotherosaurus alexandre a cretaceous plesiosaur named by Samuel Paul Welles
  • Ilingoceros alexandrae
  • Lagopus alexandrae named by Grinnell
  • Lupinus alexandrae
  • Mojavemys alexandrae
  • Sitta carolinensis alexandrae named by Grinnell
  • Scaphiopus alexanderi
  • Shastasaurus alexandre a Triassic ichthyosaur named by John C. Merriam
  • Swallenia alexandre a rare grass species endemic to California (alt. Ectosperma alexandrae )
  • Thalattosaurus alexandre a marine reptile from the Late Triassic named by John C. Merriam
  • Thomomys alexandrae
  • Ursus alexandre a subspecies of Alaskan grizzly bear named by John C. Merriam
  • Lake Alexander in Alaska (named after the Alaska expedition of 1907)

Family tree

References

The University of California, Berkeley is in charge of many of Alexander's scrapbooks and papers. Access to them can be found through the UCMP history page or through the museum archives with permission. To see the photos linked above in greater context and at a higher resolution use the links below. The UCMP also has photos from a trip that a retiree took to Nevada to capture "then and now" photos.

  • 1905 Saurian Expedition Scrapbook
  • Then versus now: The Saurian Expedition
  • The participants of the 1905 Saurian Expedition
  • The Annie M. Alexander Papers

For a closer look at Alexander and Kelloggs relationship, the Bancroft Library at University of California, Berkeley also has a collection of archival work that uncovers the hidden history of people affiliated with the campus. Alexander and Kellogg are featured and remembered as "one of the University's earliest known and most distinguished lesbian couples."

  • Gay Bears: The Hidden History of the Berkeley Campus "Annie Alexander and Louise Kellogg"