On Her Own Terms
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€65.99
A01=Barbara R. Stein
adventure
american west
annie montague alexander
Author_Barbara R. Stein
berkeley
biography
california
Category=DNBH
Category=JBSF1
Category=NHK
Category=WQH
conservation
environment
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
explorer
extinction
female scientists
feminism
field research
fossils
gender
hawaii
historical women
history
lesbian
lgbt
lgbtqia
louise kellogg
markswoman
natural history museum
naturalist
nonfiction
old west
paleontology
philanthropist
pioneer
radical women
sugar empire
the west
travel
urbanization
women and science
women in history
women in science
women in stem
womens studies
zoology
Product details
- ISBN 9780520227262
- Weight: 726g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 18 Oct 2001
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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At a time when women could not vote and very few were involved in the world outside the home, Annie Montague Alexander (1867-1950) was an intrepid explorer, amateur naturalist, skilled markswoman, philanthropist, farmer, and founder and patron of two natural history museums at the University of California, Berkeley. Barbara R. Stein presents a luminous portrait of this remarkable woman, a pioneer who helped shape the world of science in California, yet whose name has been little known until now. Alexander's father founded a Hawaiian sugar empire, and his great wealth afforded his adventurous daughter the opportunity to pursue her many interests. Stein portrays Alexander as a complex, intelligent, woman who - despite her frail appearance - was determined to achieve something with her life. Along with Louise Kellogg, her partner of forty years, Alexander collected thousands of animal, plant, and fossil specimens throughout western North America. Their collections serve as an invaluable record of the flora and fauna that were beginning to disappear as the West succumbed to spiraling population growth, urbanization, and agricultural development.
Today at least seventeen taxa are named for Alexander, and several others honor Kellogg, who continued to make field trips after Alexander's death. Alexander's dealings with scientists and her encouragement - and funding - of women to do field research earned her much admiration, even from those with whom she clashed. Stein's extensive use of archival material, including excerpts from correspondence and diaries, allows us to see Annie Alexander as a keen observer of human nature who loved women and believed in their capabilities. Her legacy endures in the fields of zoology and paleontology and also in the lives of women who seek to follow their own star to the fullest degree possible.
From 1985 to 2000, Barbara R. Stein was Curatorial Associate and Researcher at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley. Her book about Alexander grew out of a 1994 symposium on the history of women at the Berkeley campus.
