Alexander, Annie Montague, 1867-1950

Annie Montague Alexander became interested in paleontological work while attending John C. Merriam's lectures at the University of California in 1900. From then on, she was closely associated with the Department and Museum of Paleontology, as well as the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. She supported and participated in many field expeditions up until the year of her death, and advised museum directors on financial matters, policies, and personnel decisions.
December 29, 1867 Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, the third of four children born to Samuel Thomas and Martha Cook Alexander
1882 Alexander family moves to Oakland, CA
1886 AMA enrolls in La Salle Seminary for girls in Auburn, MA
Summer, 1888 Alexander family travels abroad, AMA remains to study art and music in Paris. She abandons her studies due to headaches caused by eye strain
189? AMA enters Fabiola Hospital as student nurse, again leaves due to eyestrain and headaches
1896 Travels to South Pacific, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Canton
Fall 1900 Attends lectures at University of California, including paleontology class taught by John C. Merriam, becomes fascinated with paleontology and vertebrates.
Summer 1901 Finances and participates in Merriam's fossil collecting expedition to Fossil Lake, OR
Summer 1902 Finances and participates in Merriam's fossil collecting expedition to Shasta County, CA
Summer 1903 Finances and participates in Merriam's fossil collecting expedition to Shasta County, CA
Summer 1905 Finances and participates in Merriam's "Saurian expedition" to Humbolt Range, NV, which reveals great Triassic ichthyosaur skeleton deposits
1906 Begins monthly contributions to support research in paleontology at the University of California
Summers 1906-8 Hunting and collecting expeditions to Alaska
1908 Provides funds to establish the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California
1919 Establishes an endowment fund for the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
1921 Provides funds to establish the Museum of Paleontology as a separate unit of the University of California
1934 Establishes an endowment fund for the Museum of Paleontology to "safeguard for the future the care of collections on which I have already expended many thousands of dollars." Continues to be active in her own fieldwork.
1948 Provides funds for student research fellowships in the Museum of Paleontology and the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
September 10, 1950 Death, following illness and a cerebral hemorrhage

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. Annie Montague Alexander was born December 29, 1867, in Honolulu during the Kingdom of Hawaii. She attended Punahou School for one year, but when her family moved to Oakland, California, in 1882 to get medical attention for her grandfather, she enrolled in Oakland High School.[1] In 1886 she attended Lasell Seminary for Young Women in Auburndale, Massachusetts. In 1899 she went camping in Oregon with her friend Martha Beckwith and then went with her father to Bermuda.[1] Alexander's passion for paleontology was sparked on her trip to Crater Lake with Beckwith and in 1900 she began auditing paleontology lectures at the University of California, Berkeley.[3] At Berkeley, Alexander met Professor John C. Merriam. As their friendship developed she offered to underwrite the entire cost of his upcoming expeditions. She later participated in Merriam's 1901 expedition to Fossil Lake in Oregon, as well as his 1902 and 1903 expeditions to Shasta County in Northern California.[1] Grinnell proposed the name Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and he was named by Alexander as the permanent choice of director.[17] 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.[18][19]

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.[3] Throughout their lifetimes, Alexander and Kellogg collected nearly 7,000 specimens of birds, mammals, and amphibians for the museum. They also collected over 17,000 plants for the University Herbarium and contributed thousands of fossils for the UCMP.[3] Alexander remained, until the end of her life, the largest donor and benefactress of the museum helping to fund and fill the museum with everything she found. Alexander shared her life with Kellogg for forty-two years. By all accounts, it was a devoted "Boston marriage."[3]

Annie Montague Alexander was a naturalist, explorer, and patron of the sciences. She founded both the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ) and the University of California Museum of Paleontology (UCMP) on the Berkeley campus and was the benefactress of those museums for more than 40 years.