Annie Montague Alexander

Annie Montague Alexander ( born December 29, 1867 in Honolulu, Hawaii, † September 10, 1950 in Berkeley, California ) was an American paleontologist and philanthropist. She collected a large number of fossils on worldwide expeditions, promoted the University of California at Berkeley through extensive donations and founded on the local campus, the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology ( MVZ ) and the University of California Museum of Paleontology ( UCMP ). Several fossils and living organisms are named after her.

Life and work

Annie Montague Alexander was born in 1867 as the third child of the entrepreneur Samuel Thomas Alexander and his wife Martha Cooke Alexander in Honolulu. She had three sisters: Wallace, Juliette and the younger Martha. My father owned sugar plantations in Hawaii, and was one of the founders of Alexander & Baldwin.

Alexander was initially taught by a governess. Then their education started at the private Punahou School in Honolulu. 1882, she moved to Oakland, California, where she attended public schools. From 1886 to 1888 she attended the La Salle Seminary in Auburndale, Massachusetts. She then studied art in Paris, but had to study because of their poor eyesight soon give up. Also trained as a nurse failed for this reason.

As of 1888, Alexander traveled extensively through Europe, Africa and the Pacific Islands. First, she traveled frequently with her father, until this 1904 in an accident during an outing came to Victoria Falls killed. During these travels, Annie developed an interest in the flora and fauna of the countries visited and collected samples. In 1899 she undertook the first expedition with like-minded friends.

1901 Alexander heard lectures at the American paleontologist John Campbell Merriam ( 1869-1945 ) at the University of California at Berkeley. His remarks about extinct mammals and reptiles aroused their interest and offered him to finance his next expedition, if they could participate in the archaeological field work in return. Dr. Merriam agreed and in the same year Alexander took his excavations in part for fossils in Oregon. 1902 and 1903 she accompanied him on expeditions to Shasta County, California. On their last tour together in the mountain range West Humboldt Range in Nevada in 1905, they made significant finds, including the best-preserved ichthyosaur North America.

1906 Alexander began to support the University of Berkeley with monthly donations to support the local Research in the field of paleontology. In the same year she mentioned in a letter to Merriam launch their idea of ​​creating a museum with exhibits on vertebrate campus. She hoped, so the research of paleontological university staff to support and direct the public attention to the endangered wildlife, the focus of the museum should be on vertebrates from the west coast of North America. In particular, it bears at heart, to which they amassed the most extensive private collection of the United States until 1914. 1908, the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology was opened. Alexander invested a total of $ 750,000 in its expansion and donated 20,564 zoological and fossil samples, which she herself had collected or acquired. They also took influence on the choice of the first director, Joseph Grinnell (1877-1939), and participated in three decades actively involved in the organization of the museum.

1908 Alexander was planning an expedition to Alaska, looking for female travel companion. The then 29 -year-old Louise Kellogg ( 1879-1967 ), a teacher from Oakland and cousin of Martin Kellogg, joined her. This was the beginning of a 42 -year-long relationship between the two women, both in personal as well as scientific point of view. Kellogg accompanied Alexander on their journeys and assisted them in collecting and documenting the findings. In Oakland, the women occupied while remaining separate houses and behaved discreetly, what their relationship was concerned. However, in 1911 they bought a farm on Grizzly Iceland in the Sacramento - San Joaquin River Delta, where they spent part of the year together. The farm gained national notoriety among other things, the sale of asparagus. It was continued until Alexander's death, and is today a nature reserve.

1920 Merriam left the University of California to become president of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington and the paleontological department was merged with the geological. This development did not correspond to Alexander's ideas, so in 1921 the establishment of a museum of paleontology arranged, which was independent of the Department of Geology. In 1934, she called up a foundation that ensured the financial livelihood of the museum. Repeatedly she took effect on the university management, among others, renowned paleontologist to plead. She straightened Fellowships for one initiated by their endowed museums and in addition to their zoological and 17 851 plant exhibits for the Herbarium of the University.

Into old age, Alexander remained active in the field work. She celebrated her 80th birthday during an expedition in the Sierra de la Laguna in Baja. At 81 years, however, she suffered a stroke which weakened them, and she died a few months later. Louise Kellogg led the expeditions continued until her death 17 years later. Alexander's estate is preserved in the Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley, their field notes in the archives of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.

Honors

Annie Montague Alexander in honor of two mammals, two birds, six fossils and two plants were named. These include the plesiosaur Hydrotherosaurus alexandrae, the grass Swollenia alexandrae and Urkamel alexandrae Alticamelus.

A Lake in Alaska - Lake Alexander - bears her name. 1907 Alexander had led the leading thither Alexander Alaska expedition.