This article is a biographical sketch of Charles Edward Terry (1878–1945), a public health reformer who pioneered narcotic maintenance in early twentieth-century America. He also coauthored (with Mildred Pellens) The Opium Problem, a book that has been posthumously recognized as one of the most important works on the subject ever written. Terry's career and ideas are described against the background of the Harrison Act and the formation of American narcotic policy—a policy against which Terry vigorously, but unsuccessfully, dissented.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Brecher, Edward M. and the Editors of Consumer Reports1972Licit and Illicit Drugs. Boston: Little, Brown and Co.
2.
BSH [Bureau of Social Hygiene Papers], Rockefeller Archive Center, Pocantico Hills, North Tarrytown, New York1926aFile memorandum from K. B. Davis, January 26. Series III, Box 4, Folder 140.
3.
BSH [Bureau of Social Hygiene Papers], Rockefeller Archive Center, Pocantico Hills, North Tarrytown, New York1926bTypescript report by Mildred Pellens, “Report on Survey of Scientific Opinion Concerning Proposed Activities to the Committee on Drug Addictions, December 1926.” Series IV, Box 1, Folder 554.
4.
BSH [Bureau of Social Hygiene Papers], Rockefeller Archive Center, Pocantico Hills, North Tarrytown, New York1928aLetter from Lawrence Dunham to Vernon Kellogg, December 8. Series III, Box 4, Folder 141.
5.
BSH [Bureau of Social Hygiene Papers], Rockefeller Archive Center, Pocantico Hills, North Tarrytown, New York1928bFile memorandum from Lawrence Dunham, December 18. Series III, Box 4, Folder 141.
6.
BSH [Bureau of Social Hygiene Papers], Rockefeller Archive Center, Pocantico Hills, North Tarrytown, New York1928cMinutes for December 20. Series I, Box 3, Folder 40.
7.
BSH [Bureau of Social Hygiene Papers], Rockefeller Archive Center, Pocantico Hills, North Tarrytown, New York1929Typescript “Drug Addiction and Adolescent Behavior.” Series III, Box 3, Folder 128.
8.
BSH [Bureau of Social Hygiene Papers], Rockefeller Archive Center, Pocantico Hills, North Tarrytown, New York1930aLetter from Lawrence Dunham to Arthur Woods, January 22. Series III, Box 6, Folder 152.
9.
BSH [Bureau of Social Hygiene Papers], Rockefeller Archive Center, Pocantico Hills, North Tarrytown, New York1930bTypescript “The American White Cross Association on Drug Addictions.” Series III, Box 1, Folder 94.
10.
BSH [Bureau of Social Hygiene Papers], Rockefeller Archive Center, Pocantico Hills, North Tarrytown, New York1930cLetter from R[uth] T[opping] to K. B. Davis, June 27. Series III, Box 1, Folder 94.
11.
BSH [Bureau of Social Hygiene Papers], Rockefeller Archive Center, Pocantico Hills, North Tarrytown, New York1930dTypescript “Bureau of Social Hygiene, Inc.: A Report to Trustees Covering the Years 1928, 1929, 1930.” Series I, Box 1, Folder 1.
12.
BSH [Bureau of Social Hygiene Papers], Rockefeller Archive Center, Pocantico Hills, North Tarrytown, New York1931Letter from Norman Donaldson to John Farnham, October 1. Series III, Box 1, Folder 102.
13.
BSH [Bureau of Social Hygiene Papers], Rockefeller Archive Center, Pocantico Hills, North Tarrytown, New York1932Letter from Charles Terry to John Farnham, April 27. Series III, Box 4, Folder 133.
14.
BSH [Bureau of Social Hygiene Papers], Rockefeller Archive Center, Pocantico Hills, North Tarrytown, New York1933aMemorandum from Lawrence Dunham to Raymond Fosdick and John D. Rockefeller, 3rd, April 29. Series III, Box 6, Folder 152.
15.
BSH [Bureau of Social Hygiene Papers], Rockefeller Archive Center, Pocantico Hills, North Tarrytown, New York1933bLetter from Harry Anslinger to Helen Geiger, May 3. Series HI, Box 6, Folder 152.
16.
CourtwrightDavid1982Dark Paradise: Opiate Addiction in America before 1940. Cambridge, Mass. and London: Harvard University Press.
17.
FlexnerAbraham1910Medical Education in the United States and Canada. New York: The Carnegie Foundation, Bulletin Number Four.
18.
FosdickRaymond B.1956John D. Rockefeller, Jr.: A Portrait. New York: Harper and Brothers.
19.
JaffeArnold1976Addiction Reform in the Progressive Age: Scientific and Social Responses to Drug Dependence in the United States, 1870–1930. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Kentucky.
20.
LindesmithAlfred R.1967The Addict and the Law. Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, third printing.
MustoDavid F.1973The American Disease: Origins of Narcotic Control. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
23.
OslerWilliamMcCraeThomas, eds. 1907Modern Medicine: Its Theory and Practice. 7 vols. Philadelphia and New York: Lea Brothers and Co.
24.
SmithEdward R.1966Seven Years of Pioneering in Preventive Medicine. Journal of the Florida Medical Association53:725–728.
25.
TerryCharles Edward1912Annual Report of the Board of Health for the City of Jacksonville, Florida, for the Year 1912. Jacksonville: n.p.
26.
TerryCharles Edward1913Annual Report of the Board of Health for the City of Jacksonville, Florida, for the Year 1913. Jacksonville: n.p.
27.
TerryCharles Edward1914Drug Addictions, a Public Health Problem. American Journal of Public Health4:28–37.
28.
TerryCharles Edward1915Annual Report of the Board of Health for the City of Jacksonville, Florida, for the Year 1915. Jacksonville: n.p.
29.
TerryCharles Edward1918The Vital Statistician [poem], American Journal of Public Health8:237.
30.
TerryCharles Edward1920Narcotic Drug Addiction and Rational Administration. American Medicine26:29–35.
31.
TerryCharles Edward1921Some Recent Experiments in Narcotic Control. American Journal of Public Health11:32–44.
32.
TerryCharles E.CoxJ. W.1927A Further Study and Report on the Use of Narcotics Under the Provisions of Federal Law in Six Communities in the United States of America for the Period July 1, 1923 to June 30, 1924, New York: Bureau of Social Hygiene.
TerryCharles E.PellensMildredCoxJ. W.1931Report on the Legal Use of Narcotics in Detroit, Michigan, and Environs for the Period July 1, 1925 to June 30, 1926 to the Committee on Drug Addictions. New York: Bureau of Social Hygiene.
35.
TerryCharlesSchneiderF.Jr.1918Public Health Education and the Family Magazine. American Journal of Public Health8:345–348.
36.
TerryCharlesE.1920Report of Committee on Habit Forming Drugs. American Journal of Public Health10:83–87.
37.
TerryCharlesE.1923Report of the Committee on Habit Forming Drugs. American Journal of Public Health13:39–41.
38.
TerryStephen1887Notes of Terry Families, in the United States of America …: Hartford: Privately printed.
39.
WaldorfDan1974Morphine Maintenance: The Shreveport Clinic, 1919–1923. Washington, D.C.: The Drug Abuse Council, Inc.
