Women Who Built the Berkeley Campus: a Virtual Tour

It is a short walk to the  Valley Life Sciences Building and the home of the world renowned Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and the Museum of Paleontology created by gifts from Annie Montague Alexander.  

Annie Alexander’s roots are traced to her grandparents, who had set sail in 1831 from Massachusetts as part of a company of missionaries sent to proselytize among the natives of the Hawaiian Islands. Her father Samuel, the Reverend’s third son, initially prepared himself to teach at the missionary school, but within a few years, he accepted a position as operations manager of a sugar plantation. Annie Montague, born in 1867 was the second of their five children.

Samuel Alexander, together with a partner, soon purchased barren land in north central Maui and designed a plan to capture water from the wet, windward side of Haleakala (a volcano) to his dry lands below. The Hamakua ditch project became one of the most successful water projects in Hawaii’s history and served as a model for later irrigation projects. The irrigated lands now became rich areas of sugar cane production and the partners thrived economically.

In 1883, the Alexander family moved to Oakland, a move prompted by family health concerns, but also by the prospect of more favorable business opportunities by being on the mainland. In 1896, the sugar mill was established as the California and Hawaiian Sugar Refining Company (C&H Sugar Company), the largest sugar producer in Hawaii.

Annie Alexander’s long association with the University of California began in 1900 when she availed herself of programs on the Berkeley campus and attended lectures in paleontology given by Professor John C. Merriam.  Soon after attending these lectures, Annie Alexander began personally participating in field expeditions under his tutelage. In 1901 to 1903, she joined in field trips to the Fossil Lake region of Oregon as well as to Shasta County. She also paid the salaries of the research staff, purchased the equipment, and paid the transportation of large quantities of fossils back to the university. 

Following these trips, Miss Alexander and President Wheeler worked out an unprecedented sharing arrangement for paleontology research on the campus. Wheeler would personally raise $1000 yearly if Alexander would contribute an equal amount. The arrangement continued until Wheeler’s retirement in 1919. Alexander’s financial acumen became legend at both the campus level as well as with the regents. She is remembered for having chided University controller (later president) Robert Gordon Sproul about a low return on university investments; hers, she said, were doing much better.[1]

The death of Alexander’s father in 1904 strengthened Annie’s resolve to establish a natural history museum and to provide additional support for the paleontology program on the campus. The Museum of Vertebrate Zoology was opened in 1908 at a total cost of $15,000, of which Alexander’s gift made up for the shortfall of state appropriations.  In addition, her personal collection of nearly 3500 specimens formed the nucleus for the new museum. In 1921, Alexander’s support was responsible for the formation of the Museum of Paleontology as a separate unit independent of the geology department.  She then supplemented the gift with a separate endowment fund in 1934. It is estimated that over the course of her lifetime, Annie Alexander contributed approximately a million and a half dollars to the support and endowment of the teaching and research programs of the two museums.

Alexander continued to finance and participate in field expeditions throughout her life, celebrating her 80^th birthday while on a trip to the Sierra de la Laguna mountains. She died in 1950 and was buried at her childhood home in Hawaii.