| Annie Montague Alexander was a Hawaiian-born American paleontologist and philanthropist whose patronage led to the establishment of the University of California Museum of Paleontology and Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. Alexander was born in Honolulu, Kingdom of Hawaii, in 1867, the daughter and granddaughter of two founders of sugar cane plantations. As a young woman, she trained briefly as a nurse and traveled extensively. Her interest in paleontology began in 1900 after hearing a lecture by John C. Merriam at Berkeley. She subsequently took part in and financed several of Merriam's expeditions. Usually accompanied by her life partner Louise Kellogg, Alexander continued to do field work throughout her life, contributing fossil and vertebrate specimens to the collections she helped to found. Fossil and living species named in her honor include the Cretaceous plesiosaur Hydrotherosaurus alexandrae, and the rare grass Swollenia alexandrae. Alexander died in 1950. |
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