James Mills Peirce (May 1, 1834 – March 21, 1906) was an American mathematician and educator. He taught at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

for almost 50 years.

Early life and family

He was the eldest son of Sarah Hunt (Mills) Peirce and

Benjamin Peirce Benjamin Peirce (; April 4, 1809 – October 6, 1880) was an American mathematician who taught at Harvard University for approximately 50 years. He made contributions to celestial mechanics, statistics, number theory, algebra, and the philoso ...

(1809–1880), a professor of astronomy and mathematics at

. The family was considered part of the

Boston Brahmin The Boston Brahmins or Boston elite are members of Boston's traditional upper class. They are often associated with Harvard University; Anglicanism; and traditional Anglo-American customs and clothing. Descendants of the earliest English coloni ...

elite class. The surname is pronounced to rhyme with "". Benjamin Peirce's father, also named Benjamin, was librarian at Harvard. James had four younger siblings; one brother was philosopher, logician and professor

Charles Sanders Peirce Charles Sanders Peirce ( ; September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American philosopher, logician, mathematician and scientist who is sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism". Educated as a chemist and employed as a scientist for t ...

(1839–1914). Another brother was Herbert Henry Davis Peirce (1849–1916) who was the First Secretary of the American Embassy in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

, at the end of the 19th century. J. M. Peirce graduated from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

in 1853. While an undergraduate at Harvard, he was a member of the

Hasty Pudding Club The Hasty Pudding Club, often referred to simply as the Pudding, is a social club at Harvard University, and one of three sub-organizations that comprise the Hasty Pudding - Institute of 1770. The club's motto, ''Concordia Discors'' (discordant h ...

. He attended Harvard's law school for one year. In 1857, he enrolled at the university's Divinity School and graduated in 1859.

Career

Like his father, James Mills Peirce became a professor of mathematics and astronomy at Harvard. He was first a Tutor in Mathematics, then a proctor at Harvard. He was a preacher in Boston and Charleston, South Carolina, but eventually returned to academia, first as Assistant Professor of Mathematics in 1861. He was promoted to University Professor of Mathematics in 1869, then to Perkins Professor of Astronomy and Mathematics — the same position his father once held — in 1885. He was head of the Graduate Department at Harvard from 1872 to 1895 (becoming its dean when it was converted to the Graduate School). He was the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences from 1895 to 1898. Among his publications are ''Mathematical Tables Chiefly to Four Figures'' (1896) and ''A Text-Book of Analytic Geometry; On the Basis of Professor Peirce’s Treatise'' (1857). He was considered a world authority on

quaternions In mathematics, the quaternion number system extends the complex numbers. Quaternions were first described by the Irish mathematician William Rowan Hamilton in 1843 and applied to mechanics in three-dimensional space. Hamilton defined a quater ...

Personal life

Notes and references

1834 births 1906 deaths American educators 19th-century American mathematicians Harvard Divinity School alumni Hasty Pudding alumni Harvard University faculty {{mathematician-stub