| Authorised form of name | Peirce; Benjamin (1809 - 1880); mathematician and astronomer |
| Dates | 1809 - 1880 |
| Nationality | American |
| Place of birth | Salem, Massachusetts, USA |
| Date of birth | 04 April 1809 |
| Place of death | Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
| Date of death | 06 October 1880 |
| Occupation | mathematician and astronomer |
| Research field | Algebra |
| Number theory |
| Statistics |
| Celestial mechanics |
| Mathematics |
| Astronomy |
| Activity | Education:
Harvard University MA
Career:
Teaching post at Round Hill School, Northampton, Massachusetts; joined the faculty at Harvard University as mathematics tutor (1831); professor of astronomy and mathematics at Harvard (1833); contributed to the establishment of the Harvard Observatory; became Harvard’s Perkins Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy (1842-1880). |
| Membership category | Foreign Member |
| Date of election | 25/11/1852 |
| Age at election | 43 |
| Proposer | William Parsons; Edward Sabine; Samuel Hunter Christie; Thomas Bell; William Henry Smyth; William Spence; Nathaniel Wallich; John Peter Gassiot; Charless Brooke; Philip de Malpas Grey Egerton; Benjamin Collins Brodie Junr; Charles Giles Bridle Daubeny |
| Relationships | Spouse: Sarah Hunt Mills, daughter of U.S. Senator Elijah Hunt Mills.
Children: James Mills Peirce (1834–1906); Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914); Benjamin Mills Peirce (1844–1870); Helen Huntington Peirce Ellis (1845–1923); Herbert Henry Davis Peirce (1849–1916). |
| PublishedWorks | RCN 58565
RCN 58564 |
| OtherInfo | Remembered for Peirce's criterion for statistical treatment of outliers; linear algebras; celestial mechanics; determining the orbit of Neptune and established the perturbations produced between its own orbit and those of Uranus, and other planets.
He is noted, by Josiah Lee Auspitz, to have been an apologist for the enslavement of human beings, believing it ought to be condoned if used to allow the elite to pursue scientific enquiry. |
| Source | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DAB; DSB; Auspitz, Josiah Lee (Autumn 1994). "The Wasp Leaves the Bottle: Charles Sanders Peirce". The American Scholar. 63 (4): 602–618, [URL: https://www.cspeirce.com/menu/library/aboutcsp/auspitz/escape.htm; last accessed 22/05/2024]. |
| Virtual International Authority File | http://viaf.org/viaf/39679889 |
| Code | NA5733 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| EC/1852/19 | Peirce, Benjamin: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| MC/5/73 | Letter from Benjamin Peirce, Harvard University, to Captain W H [William Henry] Smyth, [Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society] | 20 December 1852 |
| MC/5 | Volume 5 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society | 1851-1858 |