Annie Alexander was born in 1867, living in Hawaii until she was fifteen.

In 1901, a lecture about bones changed her life. The speaker was a professor of Paleontology at the University of California. Annie was so fascinated by the evidence of extinct mammals and reptiles, she offered to finance his upcoming summer expedition if she could participate.

Over the next few years, she was equally involved with expeditions throughout the Western US. A 1905 expedition in Nevada yielded many of the best specimens of ichthyosaur in existence.

Annie generously supported research and collections, even funding the Museum of Paleontology at the University of California.

She shared her love of the outdoors with Louise Kellogg for forty-two years, raising cattle and growing asparagus on their farm in California.

This Rainbow Minute was read by Ed Chapman.

“The Rainbow Minute” is produced by Judd Proctor and Brian Burns and can be heard every weekday at 7:59am, 12:29pm and 2:59pm on WRIR – 97.3fm in Richmond, Virginia, and webcast at wrir.org. It’s also heard internationally on over 200 stations.