James Terry was born in Terryville, Connecticut, on August 5, 1844, the son of James Terry and Elizabeth Miles Hollister. The village of Terryville was named for his grandfather, clockmaker Eli Terry. The younger James Terry left Connecticut for Kansas in the 1850s, and returned a year later to join his family's business, the Eagle Lock Company. After serving as the company's acting president, Terry became an anthropologist and artifact collector, focusing his research on the present-day southwestern United States. From 1891-1894, Terry was a curator for the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, where he moved his private collection. After a dispute with the museum's Board of Trustees and its president, Morris Ketchum Jesup, Terry was dismissed from his position. He later sued the museum for payment on his collection, and was awarded a settlement of $18,000. Terry's later private research focused on colonial-era libraries.
James Terry married Elmira Sedgwick Stanford, the daughter of Porter Sanford and Sarah Ann Allen, on August 30, 1865; they had one daughter, Maria Elizabeth (b. July 2, 1884). James Terry died on October 17, 1912.
From the guide to the James Terry family papers, Terry, James family papers, 1838-1953, 1879-1894, (William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan)
