Guide to the Annie Montague Alexander Papers
Processed by Helen E. Fox; machine-readable finding aid created by Gabriela A. Montoya
Museum of Paleontology
1101 Valley Life Sciences Building
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California, 94720-4780
Phone: (510) 642-1821
Fax: (510) 642-1822
Email: markg@ucmp1.berkeley.edu
URL: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu
© 1999
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Guide to the Annie Montague Alexander Papers
Museum of Paleontology
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California
Contact Information:
- Museum of Paleontology
- 1101 Valley Life Sciences Building
- University of California, Berkeley
- Berkeley, California, 94720-4780
- Phone: (510) 642-1821
- Fax: (510) 642-1822
- Email: markg@ucmp1.berkeley.edu
- URL: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu
- Processed by:
- Helen E. Fox
- Date Completed:
- August 1998
- Encoded by:
- Gabriela A. Montoya
© 1999 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Descriptive Summary
Title: Annie Montague Alexander Papers
Creator:
Alexander, Annie Montague, 1867-1950
Extent: Number of containers: 3 boxes, 2 volumes
Linear feet: 1.2
Repository:
Museum of Paleontology.
Berkeley, California 94720-4780
Language:
English.
Administrative Information
Provenance
The Alexander Papers were given to the University of California Museum of Paleontology, Berkeley, by Miss Alexander and/or
her heirs in 19xx.
Funding
Funding for processing provided by the University of California Museum of Paleontology.
Access
Collections are open by appointment only. Please contact the Museum of Paleontology directly.
Publication Rights
Copyright has been assigned to the Museum of Paleontology. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts
must be submitted in writing to the Director or the Principal Museum Scientist for forwarding. Permission for publication
is given on behalf of the Museum of Paleontology as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Annie Montague Alexander Papers, Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley.
Biography
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 |
Scope and Content
Collection contains correspondence between Annie M. Alexander and key figures in the Museum and Department of Paleontology
from 1901 to 1949. Much of this correspondence consists of information about paleontological research in the field, of Miss
Alexander and others. Further correspondence is with the President's Office and Museum and Department directors regarding
personnel and organizational issues. Letters also cover financial information about Miss Alexander's support for individual
researchers, and ultimately the endowment of the Museum of Paleontology.
Other correspondence of Miss Alexander can be found in collections of John C. Merriam and those relating to the Museum of
Vertebrate Zoology. Also included in the collection are Annual Reports and Budgets of the Department and Museum of Paleontology
for the years 1906-1948, often with a letter to Miss Alexander accompanying the report.
A scrapbook documenting the 1905 Saurian expedition to the Humbolt Range, Nevada is included, with text by Miss Alexander
and captioned photographs.
Important correspondents include David Barrows, Charles Camp, William Wallace Campbell, Ralph Chaney, Bruce Clark, Eustace
Furlong, William Matthew, John C. Merriam, Robert Sproul, Ruben Stirton, Chester Stock, Samuel Welles, and Benjamin Wheeler.
The collection is not complete.
The papers are primarily professional in nature, although since Miss Alexander was personally involved with the workings of
the Museum and Department of Paleontology, the correspondence includes personal matters as well.
Related Collections
Researchers should be aware that the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, holds other papers of Miss Alexander
(Banc MSS 67/121C; CU-120; C-B 1003) as well as a Biographical sketch of Miss Alexander (Banc MSS 69/15c)
Series 1: Correspondence,
1901-1949
Physical Description:
Boxes 1 and 2.
Scope and Content Note
Incoming and outgoing letters are interfiled and arranged alphabetically in the "miscellaneous" folder, and chronologically
within major correspondent folders. Letters neither to nor from Miss Alexander are filed under the name of the original author,
with the following exceptions: letters from Miss Alexander are filed by the receiver, as are letters whose author has no folder.
If a duplicate copy for a third party is the sole copy in the collection, it is filed by the original author; if there is
indeed a duplicate copy, it is filed in the third party's folder.
Contains primarily letters, some post cards, photographs, newspaper clippings.
Series 2: Administrative and Financial Records of the Department and Museum of Paleontology, 1906-1948
Physical Description:
Box 3.
Scope and Content Note
Arranged chronologically. Contains Annual Reports and Financial Statements, and other statements, objectives, and reports
of the Museum and Department of Paleontology, and official papers regarding the Museum of Paleontology Endowment Fund.
Series 3: Saurian Expedition Scrapbook, 1905
Physical Description:
Volume 1.
Scope and Content Note
A scrapbook documenting the 1905 Saurian expedition to the Humbolt Range, Nevada, with text by Miss Alexander and captioned
photographs.
Series 1: Correspondence, 1901-1949
Box Box 1, Folder 1
Miscellany, photographs and news clipping
1980, n.d.
Folder 2
AMA Miscellany, Correspondents with fewer than 3 letters, both incoming and outgoing, arranged alphabetically A-W
1910-1949
Folder 3
Barrows, David Prescott
1919-1923
Folder 4
Camp, Charles Lewis
1921-1933
Folder 5
Camp, Charles Lewis
1934-1939
Folder 6
Camp, Charles Lewis
1940-1948
Folder 8
Campbell, William Wallace
1924-1929
Folder 9
Chaney, Ralph W.
1931-1938
Folder 10
Clark, Bruce Lawrence
1920-1923
Folder 11
Clark, Bruce Lawrence
1924-1933, 1945
Folder 12
Davidson, Pirie
1920-1928
Folder 14
Furlong, Eustace Leopold
1921-1926
Box Box 2, Folder 1
Kinne, A. Marian
1930-1946
Folder 2
MacDonald, J. R.
1948-1949
Folder 4
Mallot, Deane W.
1946-1947
Folder 5
Massey, William C. and Ellen
1947-1949
Folder 6
Matthew, William Diller
1924-1930
Folder 7
Merriam, John Campbell
1901-1905
Folder 8
Merriam, John Campbell
1908-1915
Folder 9
Merriam, John Campbell
1916-1930, 1939
Folder 10
Nichols, Luther A.
1931-1934
Folder 11
Osborn, Henry Fairfield
1920, 1924
Folder 13
Sproul, Robert Gordon
1921-1949
Folder 14
Stirton, Ruben Arthur
1930-1945
Folder 5
Stirton, Ruben Arthur
1946-1949
Folder 16
Stock, Chester
192?-1925, 1949
Folder 18
Welles, Samuel P.
1930-1949
Folder 19
Wheeler, Benjamin Ide
1903-1919
Series 2: Administrative and Financial Records of the Department and Museum of Paleontology, 1906-1948
Box Box 3, Folder 1
Museum of Paleontology, Dept. of Paleontology, Statements, Objectives, Reports
192?-194?
Folder 2
Annual Reports and Financial Statements, Dept. of Paleontology, Merriam to AMA
1906-1915
Folder 3
Annual Reports and Financial Statements, Dept. of Paleontology, Merriam to AMA, Clark to AMA (1921)
1916-1920, 1921
Folder 4
Annual Reports and Financial Statements, Budgets Museum of Paleontology
1921-24, 1927-29, 1930-32
Folder 5
Annual Reports and Financial Statements, Budgets Museum of Paleontology
1932-33-1948
Folder 6
Museum of Paleontology Endowment Fund, official papers
1934-1948
Series 3: Saurian Expedition Scrapbook
Volume Volume 1
A scrapbook documenting the 1905 Saurian expedition to the Humbolt Range, Nevada, with text by Miss Alexander and captioned
photographs. Annie Montague Alexander Papers
Volume Volume 2
A scrapbook documenting the 1901 field expedition to Oregon with text by Miss Alexander and captioned photographs.
