[1] In 1936, Anderson was added to the botany faculty at Duke University to specialize cytology, and he was given the responsibility of curating the moss herbarium.
They married in 1941 and after having 5 children between 1942 and 1947, she accompanied him on field trips, marking topography maps with collection sites and managing specimen packets.
[citation needed] During World War II, Anderson took leave from Duke to serve in the Navy and was intelligence officer from February through September, 1945 on the USS Hancock, an aircraft carrier in the Pacific.
[1] Anderson frequently collaborated with Howard A. Crum, and in 1981, the two published a two-volume flora on the mosses of eastern North America.
[3] Anderson continued to expand the bryophyte herbarium at Duke, and he helped to develop a graduate program in bryology.