The Annie Montague Alexander Papers

Introduction  |   Biographical Chronology  |   Scope & Content  |   Series Description

More on Annie Alexander  |   The Bancroft Library's Finding Aid for the Alexander Family Papers

Introduction

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
Collection is open for research at the Museum of Paleontology, with permission from the Museum Director. Contact Mark Goodwin for further information.

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.

Size
Number of containers: 3 boxes, 1 volume
Linear feet: 1.2

Processed by
Helen E. Fox

Date Completed
August 1998

Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], [collection name & number], University California Museum of Paleontology

Related Collection(s)
The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, holds other papers of Miss Alexander's (Banc MSS 67/121C;CU-120; C-B 1003) as well as a biographical sketch of Miss Alexander (Banc MSS 69/15c).

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Biographical Chronology

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.
 

1867 Born on December 29 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.
1888 In the summer, 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.
1900 In the fall, attends lectures at University of California, including paleontology class taught by John C. Merriam; becomes fascinated with paleontology and vertebrates.
1901 Finances and participates in Merriam's summer fossil-collecting expedition to Fossil Lake, OR (photos in top banner are from this trip).
1902 Finances and participates in Merriam's summer fossil-collecting expedition to Shasta County, CA.
1903 Finances and participates in Merriam's summer fossil-collecting expedition to Shasta County, CA.
1905 Finances and participates in Merriam's summer "Saurian expedition" to the Humbolt Range, NV, which reveals great Triassic ichthyosaur skeleton deposits.
1906 Begins monthly contributions to support research in paleontology at the University of California.
1906-08 Summer 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.
1950
Passes away on September 10, following illness and a cerebral hemorrhage.
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Scope & 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.

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Series Description

Series 1: Correspondence, 1901-1949

Boxes 1 and 2
Contain primarily letters, some post cards, photographs, newspaper clippings. 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.

Container Folder Contents Dates
Box 1 1 Miscellany, photographs, and news clipping 1980, n.d.
2 AMA Miscellany, Correspondents with fewer
than three letters, both incoming and outgoing,
arranged alphabetically A-W
1910-1949
3 Barrows, David Prescott 1919-1923
4 Camp, Charles Lewis 1921-1933
5 Camp, Charles Lewis 1934-1939
6 Camp, Charles Lewis 1940-1948
7 Camp, Jessie 1947-1948
8 Campbell, William Wallace 1924-1929
9 Chaney, Ralph W. 1931-1938
10 Clark, Bruce Lawrence 1920-1923
11 Clark, Bruce Lawrence 1924-1933, 1945
12 Davidson, Pirie 1920-1928
13 Deutsch, Monroe E. 1945
14
 
Furlong, Eustace Leopold
 
1921-1926
 
Container Folder Contents Dates
Box 2 1 Kinne, A. Marian 1930-1946
2 MacDonald, J. R. 1948-1949
3 Mallory, George D. 1946
4 Mallot, Deane W. 1946-1947
5 Massey, William C. and Ellen 1947-1949
6 Matthew, William Diller 1924-1930
7 Merriam, John Campbell 1901-1905
8 Merriam, John Campbell 1908-1915
9 Merriam, John Campbell 1916-1930, 1939
10 Nichols, Luther A. 1931-1934
11 Osborn, Henry Fairfield 1920, 1924
12 Reinhart, Roy H. 1949
13 Sproul, Robert Gordon 1921-1949
14 Stirton, Ruben Arthur 1930-1945
15 Stirton, Ruben Arthur 1946-1949
16 Stock, Chester 192?-1925, 1949
17 VanderHoof, V. L. 1949
18 Welles, Samuel P. 1930-1949
19 Wheeler, Benjamin Ide 1903-1919

Series 2: Administrative and Financial Records of the Department and Museum of Paleontology, 1906-1948

Box 3
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.

Container Folder Contents Dates
Box 3 1 Museum of Paleontology, Dept. of
Paleontology, Statements, Objectives, Reports
192?-194?
2 Annual Reports and Financial Statements,
Dept. of Paleontology, Merriam to AMA
1906-1915
3 Annual Reports and Financial Statements, Dept. of
Paleontology, Merriam to AMA, Clark to AMA (1921)
1916-1920, 1921
4 Annual Reports and Financial Statements,
Budgets Museum of Paleontology
1921-24, 1927-29,
1930-32
5 Annual Reports and Financial Statements,
Budgets Museum of Paleontology
1932-33-1948
6 Museum of Paleontology Endowment Fund,
official papers
1934-1948

Series 3: Saurian Expedition Scrapbook, 1905

Container Contents Dates
Volume 1 A scrapbook documenting the 1905 Saurian Expedition to the
Humbolt Range, Nevada, with text by Miss Alexander and
captioned photographs.
1905

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Credits UCMP Copyright