Benjamin Taylor Terry Collection

Benjamin Taylor Terry, pathologist was born June 10, 1876, in Birmingham Alabama to Col. John T. Terry and Mary E. (Taylor) Terry. He received both his B. A. in 1898 and M.A. 1900 degrees from Vanderbilt, and attended medical school at Johns Hopkins graduating in 1904. He was a research fellow in pathology at the University of Chicago 1904-5, a staff member of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research 1906-1913, and served as director of laboratories at the Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn from 1913-1918. During that same time, he was also an instructor in pathology at Columbia University Medical School. In 1918 he was appointed professor of pathology in the Medical Department of Vanderbilt University, and held that post until the reorganization of the medical school in 1925. Following his tenure at Vanderbilt, he served in a number of academic and research positions including at the University of Texas, the Mayo Clinic, Toledo (OH) General Hospital, and Tacoma (WA) General Hospital, He died June 14, 1955, in Rochester, Minnesota. He published a number of articles on pathological subjects but his perfection of the neutralized polychrome methylene blue stain is considered his most lasting contribution to medical science.