Annie M. Alexander (1867 - 1950)
Collected Bird Specimens in Grayson 1904-1908

Annie Alexander's father introduced sugar cane to Hawaii and was very wealthy. She was an avid outdoors person and was fascinated by the discovery of extinct animals in Northern California as well as its natural history. In the early 1900s after attending John C. Merriam's lectures on paleontology at Cal Berkeley she began gathering her own collection of fossils as well as specimens of local animals. She became so engrossed with the collection of specimens and fossils that she bestowed a very large amount of money to U.C. Berkeley to support research and was responsible for the establishment of both the Museum of Paleotology and the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. She funded the work of Joseph Grinnell and Joseph S. Dixon who all conducted field research and gathered study skins in Stanislaus County. She herself also gathered bird specimens from the Grayson area between 1904 and 1908 which were given to the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at Berkeley. Her specimens stand as the first documented records for Ross's Goose, Barn Owl, Northern Flicker, Black Phoebe, Loggerhead Shrike, Ruby-crowned kinglet, Western Bluebird, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Lark Sparrow and House Finch.

For more information go to:

http://mvz.berkeley.edu/Annie.html

or http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/archives/alexanderpapers/#bio

Photo used with permission from http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/alexander.html